Tour of Shiva Star sends powerful message

  • Published
  • By Lee Ross
  • Nucleus editor
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  A group of high school students from Bosque School learned about a couple of big projects at Air Force Research Laboratory on April 11, and saw one of the more destructive machines Air Force scientists get to use.

Chris Erickson, an AFRL scientist, said the tour was part of a program that shows students what is available to those with science, technology, engineering and math backgrounds.

Erickson is an AFRL mentor who works with a group of students from the school. He said tours like these reach students at an important time and the presentation gave a well-rounded view of both the AFRL Space Vehicles and Directed Energy directorates.

Michele Sager, who works in the AFRL corporate communications office for those directorates, put together an outstanding presentation, he said.

Sager said part of what she does to keep students' interest is line up engaging presenters, like Will White -- a senior research engineer who took students on a tour of Shiva Star.

"He is genuinely excited about it. He has the passion and the drive," she said. "And we've helped train and hone that (for presentations). What's cool for students is explosions and destruction."

On Friday, White took several opportunities to point out bent pieces of metal and the pitted floor underneath Kirtland's Shiva Star, the Air Force's largest pulsed-power system. The damage is caused by the extreme amount of energy the device unleashes, White said.

The system can store nearly 10 million joules of energy in the banks of capacitors in its six "arms," which take up nearly an entire warehouse. It can produce a pulse of 120,000 volts and 10 million amps in 10 millionths of a second.

That's the equivalent of five pounds of TNT, but in a much shorter timeframe.

"In the time it takes for a bullet to squish against a concrete wall, the experiment is over," he told
students on Friday.

White said he enjoys meeting talking with students about his work, but he hopes some of them leave with a deeper appreciation of what goes on at AFRL.

"The technical work that I do is a lot of fun, and I am always hopeful that some fraction of the students coming through will see that as well," he said.

The tour group also learned about Erickson's work with subatomic particles cooled to nearly absolute zero, something called a Bose-Einstein condensate that can be used for precise navigation, Erickson said.

White and Erickson said they hope the tour inspired at least some of the students.

"They're getting a feel for the type of science and technology that's out there and what they're going to do with their lives," he said. "They come to AFRL and see the breadth of what the government funds."