James Flaten, associate director of NASA’s MN Space Grant Consortium, to speak on campus

Wednesday, April 11 | 2-3 p.m. | HA 305

James Flaten, Ph.D., Associate Director of NASA’s MN Space Grant Consortium, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities: Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics Department

High-Power Rocketry, Stratospheric Ballooning, and other MnSGC Build Projects at the U of MN

In this talk, Flaten will discuss NASA’s Minnesota Space Grant Consortium (MnSGC), a NASA/aerospace-promotion higher education consortium in the state. In particular, he will discuss MnSGC-sponsored build projects at the U of MN – Twin Cities which engage students from many different majors, not just Aerospace Engineering (although that is the department in which the MnSGC is housed). Even more specifically, Flaten will discuss the high-power rocketry program and the experiences studying the total solar eclipse last August from “near-space” craft flown on stratospheric balloon missions.