February 2003โJanuary 2004
The Mars Gravity Biosatellite was a student-led project spanning three universities on two continents. Students at MIT, University of Washington, and University of Queensland collaborated to design, build, launch, and recover a low- Earth-orbiting satellite to study the effects of Martian-level gravity on mammals. The Information Systems sub-group of the Mars Gravity project team needed to create an array of distributed network servers based on Microsoft .NET technology to allow real-time access to critical information needed by the team.
The project focused its efforts on data distribution, allowing all team members easy access to data and reports over the Internet, as well as on the project management needed to assign, track, and manage action items across time zones. Finally, advanced video conferencing allowed meetings to be conducted more effectively with drawing and prototypes shown in real time. Building on available software, the group worked to build a software package that could be used by any project team working across long distances and applicable to many distributed learning environments.
Student Participants: Audrey Schaffer, Ryan Damico