- Back home again
- Posted on Jun 12, 2009 03:31:29 PM | Heather Smith 0 Comments | Permalink |
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I flew home Tuesday night after having completed my mission to follow along and document a week in the Reduced Gravity Flight Program. The entire experience -- from interviewing people like Regan Geeseman and Liz Warren, to learning about the University of Colorado’s Wilberforce Pendulum experiment, to the reduced-gravity flight itself -- was surreal. I hope the students who participate in this project truly appreciate what an awesome opportunity they are given to experience such a flight, to conduct research in that environment, and to see inside NASA.
For me, it's changed how I view a few things. For one, I think that any time I see an astronaut floating in space it will take me back to my own moments in weightlessness. After experiencing how difficult it can be to control your body and do simple tasks, I am able to appreciate more fully the superb work astronauts do up there in their unique environment of space.
But aside from my own experience, I love that I was able to share it here on this blog. The positive feedback on this effort was unbelievable! Some of the students who were there with me sent the link to their parents, families and school friends, who then sent the link to their parents, families, and friends, and the word was getting out. Doug Goforth and the staff of the Reduced Gravity Flight Program were excited to have their project featured and granted me access to a behind-the-scenes view of their project so I could tell its story.
And while the week-long experience has ended, the work has just begun on the photo galleries, feature articles and career profiles that will come out of this on NASA's For Students and For Educators Web sites. I hope my blog opens doors to other opportunities to use blogs to interact with and bring real-time information to those interested in NASA.
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- The Second Crew
- Posted on Jun 12, 2009 03:19:52 PM | Heather Smith | Permalink |
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The second half of the
University of Colorado’s team flew on Wednesday. Here are pictures from Chris’, Steven’s and Swarandeep’s flight.
- Describing the Indescribable
- Posted on Jun 10, 2009 07:48:22 PM | Heather Smith | Permalink |
Now I understand exactly what people mean when they struggle to find the words to describe microgravity. Words like “cool,” “amazing” and “awesome” come to mind, but even those are not good enough. On the very first parabola I was just amazed at how quickly I could feel the change and how uncontrollable my movements were. I floated straight up to the ceiling and could not find anything to hold on to. I was just moving all around, any which way, without the ability to stop myself. It took about three to four parabolas to figure what to do to help regain control when that happened.
On the fourth parabola I started taking pictures, which was no easy feat since I was floating around all crazy myself. One of the engineers in the back of the plane with us had to keep reeling me in to the side and off of the ceiling. In order to stay still and take pictures, I needed to use a footstrap and also try to hold on to either a rope that ran down the side of the plane or one of the straps being used to hold down the experiments. In one view, using the straps to stay down kind of defeated the purpose of feeling weightless. But, using them also helped me enjoy it more because I could focus less on controlling my body and focus more on observing what was going on around me.
We flew out, performed 15 parabolas, turned around and did another 15. About half-way through the first set I started getting the hang of it. Just as we started to go into a weightlessness moment I would reach my hand up above my head so that as I floated upward I would be able to quickly grab the side rope and not end up on the ceiling. Then I’d get to work taking pictures and recording video. During some parabolas I just relaxed and looked around at what everyone else was doing and made note of how cool this was. Even though the plane was loud and there were a lot of people and a lot of commotion, seeing everyone floating there was quite serene.
There were several people on our flight who got sick, but I’m proud to say I was not of them! We all took a motion sickness medicine about an hour before flight, so I’m sure that helped. I also tried to follow the advice they had given us about keeping your head and body facing the same way and not making sudden head movements.
The flight opened my eyes to several things. One is an appreciation for the photographers and videographers who take pictures and videos during these flights -- and I don’t just mean the ones of people floating, also the images of experiments in action. It can be quite tough to get the right angles and composition while people are floating uncontrollably all around you.
Second, I remember thinking, during those serene moments where I was just looking around, that this must be what it’s like on the International Space Station, with a lot less people floating, of course, but with people moving around by “flying” through the air. It’s quite awesome to experience even just a fraction of what astronauts in space feel.
My time at Ellington Field is about to wrap-up, but the team will stay on for one more flight tomorrow. Today’s flying team was Kristian, Karina, Ashley (the mentor) and me. Tomorrow, it will be Chris, Steven and Swarandeep’s turn. Kristian, Karina and I gave tomorrow’s crew all sorts of advice and descriptions that may help them on tomorrow’s flight!
- Pre-flight advice from a professional
- Posted on Jun 09, 2009 04:03:10 PM | Heather Smith 0 Comments | Permalink |
NASA physiologist Liz Warren has flown on the Weightless Wonder several times. She described, on camera, her first experience and her tips for first-time fliers like me.
- The Experiment
- Posted on Jun 08, 2009 08:25:58 PM | Heather Smith 0 Comments | Permalink |
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When hanging vertically, the mass causes the spring to bounce up and down and also spin. After a few seconds, the pendulum stops bouncing up and down and is only spinning. After another few seconds, it stops spinning and is only bouncing. It demonstrates the physics behind basic coupled modes and is quite amazing to watch. At one point it looks like it’s bouncing up and down but if you look closely it’s not -- the spring’s spinning action gives that illusion. For the reduced-gravity flight the pendulums will be mounted horizontally.
The students have done some pretty neat engineering work to make their project successful. They designed and ordered custom springs, but due to a manufacturing error they had to quickly go to plan B and find a ready-made spring. Just three weeks ago, Karina and Swarandeep started thinking of toys with compression springs with the hope that they could take apart the toy and use the springs for their pendulum. They tried a spring from a jack-in-the-box and another from a stuffed animal, but what ended up working for them was a spring from a toy gun that shoots foam balls.
Another neat part of their project is the way they attach the steel wire that holds the pendulums to the framing of their box. The pendulums are mounted horizontally on two steel wires. In order to tighten the wires to the correct tension, the students used guitar tuning pegs so they could tighten the wires by just turning the pegs. When installing the wires during set-up last week, Karina even tested for the wires’ correct tension by plucking the strings and listening for a certain tone, just like when a musician tunes a guitar. (In addition to studying engineering, Karina also has a degree in music, so even this task uses her education.)
I was quite impressed with how they figured out how to use the materials available to them to make their design work. After today’s Test Readiness Review, where they explained to NASA engineers how their device works, they loaded and secured the experiment into the aircraft. We were all fitted for our flight suits and briefed on avoiding motion sickness. Tomorrow – we fly!
I’ve been learning more and more about the Colorado team’s experiment as I’ve watched them get everything assembled and talk through their questions and methods. As I usually am when interviewing students and writing about their projects, I’m impressed and in awe with what students come up with and build. The experiment from Colorado is actually inspired by an experiment that flew on Skylab III. The team is flying two Wilberforce pendulums – basically a spring with a mass, or weight, on one or both ends of the spring -- and will observe what happens to the pendulums when they are compressed and then released in microgravity. An excerpt and diagram from the team’s technical document explains the Wilberforce pendulum in more scientific detail:
“A Wilberforce Pendulum is a mass-spring system that exchanges energy between two coupled oscillatory modes. The exchange in momentum is caused by the coupling of the modes where the longitudinal kinetic energy is converted into rotational kinetic energy. The figure below illustrates this exchange.”
- To each their own
- Posted on Jun 08, 2009 07:59:03 PM | Heather Smith | Permalink |
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Everyone’s hypoxia experiences can look very different. I wrote about mine last week and asked the team from the University of Colorado to tell me about theirs. Here is what they said:
Kristian
“I thought it was really exciting to be inside a chamber so many astronauts had been in yet was intimidated by the idea of exposing my body to an environment that goes from sea level to 25,000 feet in a matter of minutes. During the hypoxia my actions were slowed and I started to feel really silly and had trouble completing any of my thoughts. My heart started to beat extremely hard and at a much faster rate. My vision was also blurred and colors started to run into each other.”
Swarandeep
“I found it exhilarating to be in the chamber. At first I felt fine but after a couple of minutes I started feel the effect of hypoxia. First my peripheral vision began to fail; I tried to press through it but shortly after my head started to hurt, I began to feel nauseous, and all the colors began to blur. At this point I began to panic and put my mask back on. I honestly thought I would have more problems with popping my ears, but that came more natural to me. This was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life!”
Steven
“I was really nervous prior to taking my mask off, but when I finally did I was overcome with an intoxicating euphoria which melted away all of my anxieties and replaced them with generous amounts of laughter. I had to be told to put my oxygen mask back on after five minutes because if I didn’t I would have kept going until I passed out – I was having a grand old time. In retrospect, it’s kind of unnerving to see how something so life-threatening can be so mind-altering and enjoyable.”
Chris
“It was an exciting experience but I felt too nervous about the chamber to fully take in what was happening. I only wish that I could have enjoyed it more as it was a very unique opportunity. I never felt the signs of hypoxia; however, I did have problems clearing my ears as we descended. All in all, it was a very memorable experience.”
Karina
“The chamber experience was nothing like I've ever experienced before! I could feel my brain become less effective as time went by. Processing information became unimportant to me as I progressed in my symptoms. I consciously knew that I knew the information that was being asked of me on the worksheet; however, I was unable to make myself focus and retrieve that information. As time continued, I began to care less and less and eventually gave up and stared blankly into space before being told to put my O2 mask back on. My symptoms mostly consisted of dizziness, blue fingernail beds, apathetic attitude and tunnel vision.”
- Going Hypoxic
- Posted on Jun 07, 2009 06:29:46 PM | Heather Smith 0 Comments | Permalink |
Ok. That was cool. We just finished the hypoxia demonstration and that was just crazy. During pressure change from ground level to 25,000 feet my ears popped and popped and popped some more. It was a lot like being in a commercial plane but instead of one or two pops they just kept doing it.
When we got to 25,000 feet, my group was the first to take off our oxygen masks. They gave us a clipboard of questions to answer, a few simple math problems, and place to write observations about what I was feeling. At one minute, I wrote that I felt floaty, that my vision was weird and that my ears were burning. At two minutes I only wrote one symptom: tingly. I wrote nothing at three minutes but I think it was because I was starting to feel the mental affects and couldn’t understand what I needed to be doing. I remember trying to do the simple math problems – like 46+78 and 90-17 – and choosing not to do the subtraction problem because it was hard. Similarly, when I was asked to list the presidents in reverse order, starting with the current one, I could only go back two presidencies and then was unsure, and not because I didn’t know I just couldn’t process it.
At four minutes I wrote the word “crampy” and I was feeling my back and my sides feeling uncomfortable.
The funniest part was when I tried to write my last name backwards. I don’t even remember reading this in real time, but after we were below 10,000 feet and could breathe normally again they let us each go around and tell the symptoms we experienced. One of the other participants said that was her favorite question because it was challenging and she wasn’t able to do it with as much ease as she thought. Since I didn’t remember that question I looked back at my sheet to see if I had skipped it or hadn’t gotten that far on the sheet. No, sure enough, I had written an answer on that blank but I wrote the word “normal.” I don’t remember doing that but my best guess is that when I got to that question I must have been thinking “I feel normal” so I wrote down that word.
The experience was not as bad as I expected. All of the training prepared me for the worst, and I was most nervous about wimping out and needing my oxygen mask too soon, before I had the chance to experience anything. But I definitely felt the effects and afterward was quite surprised at exactly how strange the whole experience was. Quite awesome, indeed!
