ARIZONA SUMMER
Two-tortilla quesadilla Find out how to make caramelo delights and all the fixings.
WILD CAT JUNE 8-14, 2011
MONSOON, page 6
dailywildcat.com
To cool the school
Thermal storage project puts university heating problems on ice By Remy Abillar ARIZONA SUMMER WILDCAT Tucson residents are familiar with the battle to bear the burdens of summer living, in particular the costs of peak electrical hours during triple-digit summers, and the UA is no exception. Likewise, no desert is without an oasis. A recent tour of the UA’s Central Refrigeration Plant , located on Helen Street and Mountain Avenue , highlighted the technology and methodology the
university uses to balance out summer cooling costs. Leading the tour were Central Plant mechanic lead Bruce Haldeman and plant administrator Joe Thomas. Within the control center of the plant, Haldeman and Thomas explained the basics of thermal storage. Peak summer hours are from noon to 8 p.m., Thomas said. To offset cooling costs, the plant freezes water at night to chill the school during the day. The university thermal storage project includes three plants. Together, these
plants loop 16 million gallons of chilled water across campus and the University Medical Center every hour, helping to cool 176 buildings across campus, Haldeman said. Out back, a barrack of large silver cylinders glint in the sun whose light they were designed to counteract. The Central Refrigeration Plant makes ice in 165 of these thermal storage tanks, “the second largest after the JC Penney home office,” Thomas said. The tanks are filled with tubes of glycol, which is used to freeze the water in
the tanks overnight. During peak electrical hours, water is cooled over this ice before being distributed across campus. Thermal ice tanks aren’t the only key component of this energy-saving system. As the cool water from the plant absorbs heat from classrooms and offices, it makes its way back to the plant to be cooled and rerouted across campus. Above the tanks on the roof, 125-horsepower, 22-foot fans are used to disperse much of this heat “like a giant
One of four cooling cell towers at the Central Refrigeration Plant at the UA. The university thermal storage project includes three plants which help to cool 176 buildings across campus.
ICE PLANT, page 2
Keturah Oberst/Arizona Summer Wildcat
UA takes lead in asteroid Handy fit for campus news research mission By Amer Taleb ARIZONA SUMMER WILDCAT
By Amer Taleb ARIZONA SUMMER WILDCAT
OSIRIS-REx, page 3
By the numbers
0165 5710 4416 4156 1606 9161 5165 1110 2404
To better understand the future, NASA and the UA are teaming up to extract and study a chunk of the solar system’s past. The UA will receive roughly onequarter of NASA’s $800 million contract to develop and operate the mission, known as the OriginsSpectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx. OSIRIS-REx is an asteroid sample return mission that, if successful, will extract and bring back at least 60 grams of pristine, uncontaminated material to Earth for study in terrestrial laboratories, said Paul Hertz, chief scientist in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA. The final mission criteria, which are yet to be “signed and approved,” will most likely determine whether or not the OSIRIS-REx mission is a success by NASA’s standards, Hertz said. Michael Drake, director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the mission’s principal investigator, will lead OSIRIS-REx and act as its “quarterback.” Drake said that achieving and surpassing all of the goals NASA entrusted to him is more a matter of pride than pressure. And although it won’t be an easy task, he said he
has an enormous amount of confidence in his team and their ability to get the job done. OSIRIS-REx is also the name of the box-shaped spacecraft that will launch in 2016. The spacecraft
Arizona Mobile, the first ever mobile phone application developed by the UA, fits the latest news, events and other UArelated information into the palm of your hand. The application, currently compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, has already claimed its place among other applications in the App Store and is available for
free download. Features include easy access to campus maps, emergency contacts, meal plans, athletic scores, course listings, UA phonebook and campus directory, among many others. Universities developing and offering mobile applications such as this is not a new concept. According to the Google Enterprise Blog, Columbus State University has been using Google Apps Education Edition since early 2009.
Nicholas Adamakis, director of marketing for Student Affairs and Arizona Student Unions, said the UA had considered creating the application as a way to more directly benefit the campus community, but did not rush the process to ensure it served the largest amount of people possible. “There is no benefit to creating an app just to have one,” Adamakis said. “It was better to wait until we could create an app MOBILE, page 2
$800 million
The total amount of the NASA grant for the project. The UA will receive $200 million.
4.5 million
The age of 1999 RQ36, the asteroid which OSIRIS-REx will collect samples from.
1 in 1800
The probability that the asteroid will strike Earth in 2182.
60
The number of grams of soil researchers hope to collect.
Rebecca Rillos/Arizona Summer Wildcat
Morgan Larson, right, an associate with Arizona Mobile, demonstrates the new UA mobile application on an iPad to incoming freshman Eric Langerman, left, and his father, Mark, at freshman orientation on June 2. The application is currently available in the Apple App Store for free.