Rudy Werlink a fluid systems engineer in the Engineering Directorate at NASA's Kennedy Space Center monitors a test.

Rudy Werlink, a fluid systems engineer in the Engineering Directorate at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, monitors a test in a lab at the Cryogenics Testbed Facility using the Lead Zirconate Titanate, or PZT-based system that he developed. Werlink developed the PZT-based system at Kennedy as a way to measure the mass of a fluid and the structural health of a tank using vibration signatures on Earth or in reduced/zero g gravity.

The mass gaging technology has received approval to be on the first sub-orbital flight on the Virgin Galactic Space Plane in 2015. NASA experiments using the PZT technology will be used by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in conjunction with Carthage College on a fluid transfer experiment. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Casper