EAPS

This Saturday, a team from MIT will be flying a giant copepod named Copezilla into the Charles River as a part of the Red Bull Flugtag. We'd like to invite you all to come and watch!

Copezilla (Calanus colossus) was born a tiny zooplankton in the Charles River before setting out on a 100 year global odyssey that saw her grow to epic proportions. Her clutch of eggs suggests she's returned, ready to complete her life cycle - but the only way to get her back home is to fly her into the Charles as part of the Flugtag!

None of us have ever entered a competitive flying event before, and so we thought we'd change that by building a giant copepod (marine crustacean and central to the marine food web) to launch into the Charles River for the Flugtag event on Aug. 20. We're using it as an outreach activity, dressing up as scientists, and hoping to expose the research that we do here at EAPS to a broader community.

We've designed and constructed the entire flying/falling vehicle ourselves over the past few weeks, mainly with PVC pipe, insulation foam, and cardboard. Jon, our captain, will be riding Copezilla into the drink, while the rest of us will be launching ourselves in afterwards. We'll be scored on creativity and performance quality as well as the distance Copezilla soars before swimming, and so we think we have a pretty good shot at doing well.

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