It finally arrived!! The morning of our zero gravity flight (1st group). I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous and anxious at the same time. I think most of us were so very freaked out about the possibility of vomiting. The first thing we did was go to our morning briefing session with Doug Goforth. He was so great and calm. He made sure to point out that even though we were there to do research, that this was still a once in a lifetime opportunity. His parting words were for us to "make a moment" while we were weightless. To just stop for a few seconds and take it all in. We then had a session with our flight surgeon to review motion sickness and to get our anti-sickness pills. Those pills were a lot of fun! It was the weirdest feeling because my head was woozy, but my stomach felt great. We had our last talk with the photographers and videographers and then we started making our way to the plane. It was really cool because the rest of the teams were outside waiting for us to start our journey and wishing us well. Once on the plane we filled up the 6 rows in the back to prepare for take off with our experiments secured in front of us. Then we made it up to about 10,000 feet and we were able to get out of our seats to set up our experiments. It was pretty cool to be working and moving around as the plane was flying! Everything was set up and ready to go. Accelerometer was collecting data, 3 cameras were set up, and bubble gun ready to go. I just hoped everything would go according to plan and we would get the data we needed. We all laid on the floor of the plane as we waited for the first sensation of weightlessness on our first parabola. It seemed like an eternity, but it did come and up we went! Even when we held on to things with our hands, our feet would be going everywhere. I can definitely say there were a lot of smiles during those short precious seconds of zero g. Then we went into 2-g's, which was really tough to move around in. Most people just laid on their backs through this portion (I think this is where most people got sick). However, I thought it was challenging and fun and would continue to work through 2-g's. We had one more parabola to get used to the feeling of nothing. Our third parabola we hear "research!!" and we got to work at once.
Our biggest fear with our experiment was how the bubble gun would work. It's performance had not always been reliable or consistent. However, it worked beautifully. It was the cameras that threw us for a loop. As I mentioned earlier, the first problem was with the glare, but now my good camera kept shutting off in 2-g. Thankfully, we had 3 flip cameras and one was just taking footage of us as a group for our own record. We swapped that camera out with the one that wasnt working and just made the best of it. It turns out we didnt get great data because our camera angles didn't capture the bubbles well enough to time them from start to finish. More to come on that in a later blog.
Overall, it went by wayyy too quick. We were only weightless about 12-18 seconds each time, which also is what popped a lot of our bubbles. We were so busy with the research the time flew by and none of us had time to think about getting sick (yeah!). Then at the end we had two parabolas of lunar gravity and martian gravity, which were a lot of fun!! As we wound down we stowed everything for landing and headed back to our seats. I had made my moment and was so grateful for the chance to do this. We think (just from observations) that the bubbles did last longer, but heading into 2-g would force them to the bottom of the glove box and they would pop. We will just have to look at our video data to make a better judgement. The cool thing was that the gun would make a lot more bubbles in zero-g and they would clump together! Many times as the bubbles would leave the gun they would join together to make huge masses of bubbles. We definitely did not expect that and we are looking forward to figuring out why that happened.
Once we landed our amazing teams were there to greet us and get all the juicy details. Our work just started as we knew where to make improvements, and get the rest of our team ready for their day on Friday. We had to figure out new camera angles and where to place our measuring tapes. It was a great teachable moment because rarely does anything go perfectly the first time, and changes need to be made. I cant wait to take this experience back to my classroom to share with my students and fellow teachers. Thank you NASA, RGO, TFS, and everyone else that made this experience possible!!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
More fun!!
This day started with a tour of the mission control centers again. Our mentor took us on more of a VIP tour that wasnt rushed and we got a lot of great information. This one was with our TSF group and we had a lot of time contraints. We also had to stay behind the glass in the shuttle mission control. W got a little more information, but it was great to see everything again. We also did the mock up facility again and were actually able to see some astronauts!! There were two Russians having a meeting near the simulator and astronaut Mike Fink from STS 134 was giving an interview on camera. It looked like he was talking about the Soyuz capsule. The best part was seeing the Neutral Buoyancy Lab! It is 202 feet in length, 102 feet in width, and 40 feet deep!! It holds a large portion of mock space station sections. However, the whole space station doesn't fit, but it was cool to see the divers and how small they looked in the pool.
In the afternoon we headed back to Ellington field to get our glove box so we could set up our experiment. All week we didn't have much to work on because we thought we were good to go. Never assume you have everything ready! Once we got our glove box everything was going smooth until we tested the video cameras. We needed it to be about a foot away from the box so we could get the gun and the rest of the box in the field of view. However, we never thought about GLARE! The plastic might as well of been a mirror. It was very difficult to see the clear bubbles through the glare. We then put black construction paper on the back side of the box so we could see the bubbles better, but the glare just got worse. Then it got even worser (I know not a word but that is what it felt like) when we loaded the box on the plane. The padding on the inside of the plane was all white, which made it so hard to see the bubbles because of the reflection. We then decided to use a black trash bag and attach it to the top of the box and have it then come around behind the camera so it wouldnt reflect anything. We thought it would work but we wouldnt know for sure until our flight day because we still had to go out and buy the bags. Personally, my mind was getting fried because I was starting to worry about so many things going wrong at this point. We thought we had it all together, but we were encountering new problems all the time. The other big problem was getting our accelerometer figured out. We had borrowed a vernier interface and probe, but I didnt write down more specific instructions on how to calibrate it (my fault). However, most of our glitches is what scientists and engineers always encounter. In science it is very rare to get something perfect the first time so even though it was very stressful it was a great teachable moment.
In the afternoon we headed back to Ellington field to get our glove box so we could set up our experiment. All week we didn't have much to work on because we thought we were good to go. Never assume you have everything ready! Once we got our glove box everything was going smooth until we tested the video cameras. We needed it to be about a foot away from the box so we could get the gun and the rest of the box in the field of view. However, we never thought about GLARE! The plastic might as well of been a mirror. It was very difficult to see the clear bubbles through the glare. We then put black construction paper on the back side of the box so we could see the bubbles better, but the glare just got worse. Then it got even worser (I know not a word but that is what it felt like) when we loaded the box on the plane. The padding on the inside of the plane was all white, which made it so hard to see the bubbles because of the reflection. We then decided to use a black trash bag and attach it to the top of the box and have it then come around behind the camera so it wouldnt reflect anything. We thought it would work but we wouldnt know for sure until our flight day because we still had to go out and buy the bags. Personally, my mind was getting fried because I was starting to worry about so many things going wrong at this point. We thought we had it all together, but we were encountering new problems all the time. The other big problem was getting our accelerometer figured out. We had borrowed a vernier interface and probe, but I didnt write down more specific instructions on how to calibrate it (my fault). However, most of our glitches is what scientists and engineers always encounter. In science it is very rare to get something perfect the first time so even though it was very stressful it was a great teachable moment.
Day 3 In Houston
This morning was a lot of fun because we were able to head back to the JSC campus to learn about the Teaching From Space opportunities that are available. I knew there were quite a bit of programs available, but there must have been close to 20! I am actually applying for another TSF program called ARISS to use ham radio to contact astronauts on the space station. I will keep you posted on that opportunity! We then did some activities from the Toys in Space program. We get toys and test them here in gravity. Then we make predictions about how they react in space. The best part is that there are actually videos online that show how the toys react in zero g so students can visually see if their predictions were correct or not and why. We did this last year at space academy, but these are activities that dont get boring! Then we had Alissa Keil present us information about the NASA Explorer school online program, which I highly recommend. She then let me present a little bit about my experience with the program this year with some additional slides in her program. I love to share best practices and what I think works with the students. It was so much fun!! Thanks Alissa!
In the afternoon we had a guest speaker to talk to us how they make space suits. It was really interesting to see the progression of the space suit and where they are heading in the future. I've actually seen a few models in Flagstaff through the desert RATS NASA program. It was great to learn more about them though. Overall, another great day!
In the afternoon we had a guest speaker to talk to us how they make space suits. It was really interesting to see the progression of the space suit and where they are heading in the future. I've actually seen a few models in Flagstaff through the desert RATS NASA program. It was great to learn more about them though. Overall, another great day!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Best Day So Far....
Today started at 5am packing for our big Test Readiness Review at the NASA hanger. I was very nervous because as team lead, I would be doing most of the talking. I was fine with talking to groups of people, but this would be around 20 engineers determining if we would be safe to fly or not. The A teams (or teams that would fly first) were working really hard to put the finishing touches on their experiments inside their glove boxes (large clear boxes to keep the experiment contained and everyone else safe). We have a very simple experiment so we finished early, but it felt weird because I kept thinking we needed to be doing something. Of course, we ended up going next to last so I just kept watching everyone and getting more nervous. Our time came and went and we all did a great job. Looking back it is getting worked up over nothing because most of them have already looked at and approved our Test Equipment Data Package. I just hope I get to do this again down the road so I wont be so nervous!
After the craziness of the morning we had a huge chunk of time to work on our experiment in the afternoon. However, we have everything done so our AMAZING NASA mentor Sarah Ruiz said that she would take us to mission control for a special tour. Sarah is not just an amazing mentor, but an amazing person. She has been so helpful throughout this process and now she continues to volunteer her time for us. I have seen other mentors that are not very connected to their teams and I seriously doubt that they are giving them behind the scenes tours of places at NASA. Anyway, she ends up taking us to the Apollo mission control, and we are not behind the glass like the tours. We are on the floor that all those men stood on as they cheered on the successful Apollo missions and scrambled to keep 13 alive. It was an amazing feeling to sit in those same chairs and look at those old computers. From there we went to see the Shuttle Mission Control. Again, very cool because we were able to see it before the last shuttle mission and a few people trickled in and out. Finally, we saw the International Space Station mission control. This one is operated 24/7 so we had to be behind the glass for this one, but it was fun to see everyone at work. The best part was seeing a sunset in real time from the ISS on their big screen. It was so fast, but so powerful.
We then had an amazing opportunity to see the STS-134 debrief ceremony at the JSC visitor center. It was so cool to see the crew of the mission, hear their bios, watch their videos, and view their pictures. It was also really neat because Mark Kelly's wife Gabrielle Giffords was there along with Mark's brother. It was a funny and awe inspiring tale from the space station. They took a question and answer session at the end and my friend Beth told me to ask Kelly to come up to Flagstaff to talk to our students. So I did. I raised my hand, told him where we were from and what we were doing. I asked if he would come talk to our students (maybe he could help inspire our next generation of astronauts), and he said to email him. Hmmmm. Getting an astronauts email is like... finding a needle in a haystack. I am going to try to contact him in some way to see where it leads, because you never know if you don't try. Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventure!
After the craziness of the morning we had a huge chunk of time to work on our experiment in the afternoon. However, we have everything done so our AMAZING NASA mentor Sarah Ruiz said that she would take us to mission control for a special tour. Sarah is not just an amazing mentor, but an amazing person. She has been so helpful throughout this process and now she continues to volunteer her time for us. I have seen other mentors that are not very connected to their teams and I seriously doubt that they are giving them behind the scenes tours of places at NASA. Anyway, she ends up taking us to the Apollo mission control, and we are not behind the glass like the tours. We are on the floor that all those men stood on as they cheered on the successful Apollo missions and scrambled to keep 13 alive. It was an amazing feeling to sit in those same chairs and look at those old computers. From there we went to see the Shuttle Mission Control. Again, very cool because we were able to see it before the last shuttle mission and a few people trickled in and out. Finally, we saw the International Space Station mission control. This one is operated 24/7 so we had to be behind the glass for this one, but it was fun to see everyone at work. The best part was seeing a sunset in real time from the ISS on their big screen. It was so fast, but so powerful.
We then had an amazing opportunity to see the STS-134 debrief ceremony at the JSC visitor center. It was so cool to see the crew of the mission, hear their bios, watch their videos, and view their pictures. It was also really neat because Mark Kelly's wife Gabrielle Giffords was there along with Mark's brother. It was a funny and awe inspiring tale from the space station. They took a question and answer session at the end and my friend Beth told me to ask Kelly to come up to Flagstaff to talk to our students. So I did. I raised my hand, told him where we were from and what we were doing. I asked if he would come talk to our students (maybe he could help inspire our next generation of astronauts), and he said to email him. Hmmmm. Getting an astronauts email is like... finding a needle in a haystack. I am going to try to contact him in some way to see where it leads, because you never know if you don't try. Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventure!
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