Monday, November 11, 2019
Monday, August 6, 2012
Thanks for your confidence.....but....
On the first flight day, there were at least 3 of us that got sick. I am proud to say that I lasted until parabola 20. At this moment, I threw up in my puke bag, gave it to the doctor, and then I was fine! My team mates were worried about me but I felt fine right after I got it out of my system. Now I know your next question is, "Did it fly everywhere??!!" Well here is your answer: I started throwing up in hyper gravity and the doctor held me down while I continued to throw up in zero gravity. Since I had my puke bag (thank goodness) so the puke did not fly anywhere (thank goodness!). Now, if I had missed my puke bag, I assume the puke probably would have floated in whatever direction I projected to until it either hit someone, or the hyper gravity started and then it would fall to the bottom of the plane. Then the doctor and/or flight attendant cleaned it up.
The next time I puked I believe it was during parabola 31. This time my stomach was very upset with me and done. It did not want me to be on this plane any longer....lol. So, sadly I had to go to the back where the seats were and let my teammates finish the experiment. I felt so sick....and being in the seat didn't really make me feel much better. Now I felt like I was on a roller coaster; but at least I was stable.
There was an up side to this though...parabola 32 was the last zero gravity parabola and we were then doing 4 martian and 4 lunar ones. I sadly missed the free feeling of the martian and lunar parabolas but I did get to see everyone in the plane experience them. THIS WAS MY MOMENT....I suddenly remembered Doug telling me to take time to really experience what was going on around us. I was at the back of the plane, watching everyone in it jumping and floating around. They were so excited, happy, surprised, amazed.....I saw so many emotions throughout the plane. I remember thinking.......
'How amazing....how lucky am I to experience this and be apart of this awesome opportunity. I am so fortunate. I will remember this and I can't wait to tell this experience to everyone possible for the rest of my life.'
.....So yes, I did 'PUKE FOR SCIENCE', and 'I WOULD DEFINITELY DO IT AGAIN' if I get the opportunity. :)
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Friday....last flight day.
I have to apologize for my delay in this post....I admittedly got a little tired and overwhelmed with everything that I took a few days off. That being said......let me talk about Friday, our last flight day.
Doug briefing the team for the flight.
The flow chart to brief us for our flight.
Here they are on their way into G-Force One.
Here is a pic they took on the plane right before take off.
Maggie, Alison and I were so excited for our team members and anxiously waited watching their flight online. It was very cool that we could watch it on www.flightaware.com. Here is the route of their flight.
As we waited, we wanted to get our team member some pizza and drinks to celebrate! So we ran and picked up pizza and drinks from Sonic (since they were all craving soda and we were advised not to drink it before the flight).
There flight was much faster than ours and we almost missed their homecoming! As we pulled into the parking lot and ran to the runway, we saw the plane landing! So we ran, put the pizza and drinks down, picked up the markers and poster boards to make signs, and ran to the runway! Luckily we had enough time to make their homecoming signs and watch them come in.
They all did great! The weather was great weather for flying so their flight time was only 1.7 flight hours, where ours was 2.5 flight hours. Jamie said that a lot of people did get sick on this flight...more than usual. Thankfully, our team is awesome and none of them got sick at all! Here are some pictures from their flight.
They really enjoyed the flight and got a large amount of research done. Their research was a little different because they were measuring the projectile launching in hypergravity. Hypergravity is when you feel more pressure on your because you are defying the pull of gravity. This was when the plane was flying up. They even looked out the window!!! Which the experts do not really advise because the sight can really confuse your body and brain.
Aren't these pictures amazing....it became even more surreal to me when I saw these two pictures of how high we really were.....speechless....
Our awesome team lead Ashle and Sharon bought us a cake and gave us certificates for completing the program!
I felt so thankful and honored to be apart of something so amazing with such great people. We wanted to show how much we appreciated this experience so the night before we all worked together and made Jamie and Ashle collages. They loved them!
Sharon also gave Jamie and Sara (the team mentors and coordinators) PSTI patches and pins. They really liked them as well.
This program was definItely a moment I will remember the rest of my life. I feel so fortunate to have been selected to be apart of this and could not thank Jamie, Ashle, and Sharon for working so hard to make this possible for us. IF you are still wondering IF I PUKED.....stay tuned for videos and the results......COMING SOON!
Friday, OUR LAST FLIGHT DAY
Today our other two flight members, Veronica and Amber, and our mentor Jamie fly today testing the Projectile launcher. They we all very excited! Amber was a little nervous but we all knew she would do great! Right when we get to the hanger, they go to their first meeting and get briefed on the safety procedures as we did as well as get their meds to prepare for flight. Jamie switched the experiments out the day before right after our flight so everything was ready.Doug briefing the team for the flight.
Here they are on their way into G-Force One.
Here is a pic they took on the plane right before take off.
Maggie, Alison and I were so excited for our team members and anxiously waited watching their flight online. It was very cool that we could watch it on www.flightaware.com. Here is the route of their flight.
As we waited, we wanted to get our team member some pizza and drinks to celebrate! So we ran and picked up pizza and drinks from Sonic (since they were all craving soda and we were advised not to drink it before the flight).
There flight was much faster than ours and we almost missed their homecoming! As we pulled into the parking lot and ran to the runway, we saw the plane landing! So we ran, put the pizza and drinks down, picked up the markers and poster boards to make signs, and ran to the runway! Luckily we had enough time to make their homecoming signs and watch them come in.
They all did great! The weather was great weather for flying so their flight time was only 1.7 flight hours, where ours was 2.5 flight hours. Jamie said that a lot of people did get sick on this flight...more than usual. Thankfully, our team is awesome and none of them got sick at all! Here are some pictures from their flight.
They really enjoyed the flight and got a large amount of research done. Their research was a little different because they were measuring the projectile launching in hypergravity. Hypergravity is when you feel more pressure on your because you are defying the pull of gravity. This was when the plane was flying up. They even looked out the window!!! Which the experts do not really advise because the sight can really confuse your body and brain.
SAD TO SAY GOODBYE....
Now was time for us to turn in our flight suits and say our appreciation and goodbyes....we were getting very sad. But! We HAD to take some awesome pics first!
I felt so thankful and honored to be apart of something so amazing with such great people. We wanted to show how much we appreciated this experience so the night before we all worked together and made Jamie and Ashle collages. They loved them!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
OFF we go! YAY!
Woke up this morning feeling a bit more prepared for our flight. I put on my Queen Crown, my flight suit and ate my English muffin (thought that would be a good breakfast to calm my tummy). I met my flight team downstairs at breakfast and we headed to the NASA hanger where we have been preparing our experiment. This is what the hanger looks like. It's pretty neat that 'The Weightless Wonder" plane is in there being worked on.
I thought we were going to fly on the 'Weightless Wonder' and found out that there are 3 planes NASA has used for the Reduced Gravity Flight Program to simulate microgravity; 'The Weightless Wonder' (above)
Next we into the briefing room to hear how the day will go. We are supposed to fly both flight today, ours in the morning and Veronica and Amber in the afternoon. So, Maggie, Allison and I are anxiously waiting to hear if we can fly!
First, the flight attendant Tim, briefed us on what to do on the plane. He showed us how to work the life masks and vests in case there is a problem and we need oxygen.
Next the doctor that will be on board and giving us our medication came in to talk to us. He said we can call him 'The Candy Man". lol. He told us about the medication they have to give us if we want it; Scopolamine. It is to help calm us if we are really nervous. He said that it lessens the chance of people getting sick by 30%. They give it to us in pill form or in a shot in our arm. I don't like shots at all but decided that I would do the shot because the doc said that it weakens the symptoms so I decided to take the shot. He also gave us 2 'puke bags' (just in case we need them) to put in our flight suit for the flight.
Then we were ready to get on the plane! Here we are walking to the plane:
Once we were on the plane we sat at the back where the seats were for take off. We had to buckle in just like a regular flight as well. We even had safety brochures just like on a regular plane.
At this point, I was so excited!!! I was not even scared about any of it.....the medicine was probably working and keeping my nerves calm.
After takeoff, the flight attendant advises us we can get out of our seats and get ready for the experiment. I had to go to the yellow compartment box and get our backpack of items we needed for the research; a camera, clipboard and stopwatch to do our research, and Allison's camera for us to take pictures. At this time, we were still in regular 1g gravity.
This is container my backpack was in.
So I got the bag and walked over to our experiment, Allison and I set up the camera and itouch in the box, and Maggie and I checked to make sure our video camera was on and in place. The Doug taped our bag to the yellow container so we could get to our outreach items later. He had to tape it so the backpack wouldn't fly up in zero gravity! What a crazy thought! This is when it really hit me that we were really going to be floating up many times in this ride. After we were all set up and ready to go, I strapped my leg into a strap on the floor of the plane and we all laid down waiting for the parabolas to start.
You can see my skittles and glitter in the container to the left! The girls in the back of the picture are from Bryn Mawr college. They are doing an experiment testing the porosity of soil in different gravities. Alice is sitting up facing the other way and was sitting up and laying down. I felt more comfortable laying down and then sitting up during microgravity to do the experiment. They advised us to lay down for the first few parabolas to let our body get used to them. So at the 3rd one they yelled 'research' to remind us to start working. When we got up to work, it was the craziest feeling ever! I was excited and scared at the same time! It took a minute for all of us to take in the moment and then realize we needed to get to work. It was very hard for me to put my arms in the diaphragm holes, grab the correct container, put it on the blade and let it go to start the oscillations (movement of the blade side to side).
The first time was very challenging! I was trying to grab the #1 container with only my right hand and just couldn't! Finally Maggie yelled, "use your other hand to help!" I think it is hilarious that she had to tell me to do this! HAHAHA! We experience this floating feeling for only about 15 seconds. This is not very much time for us to do the experiment since that is the exact amount of time we need to read the oscillations of each numbered container to measure the mass. Allison counted the oscillations and Maggie timed it as I put in the container; one per parabola. We did this over and over again for about 20 parabolas before I started to feel a little sick. We did take a break and go to 1g (regular gravity) a couple times for the NASA researchers to change something on their experiment. So if you have to go to the bathroom up here, you must go in a bag-like thing on this plane. The flight attendant advised us of this and I didn't think anyone would, but during one of the breaks, a girl from Bryn Mawr just couldn't hold it any longer and had to go.
The feeling of being in microgravity is like nothing else. The first time I felt so many emotions. I was excited and a little freaked out at the same time. I am so fortunate to be apart of this flight! I do have to say it was a little hard to focus at times during the experiment but I was trying my best to get our research done.
After about 27 parabolas of work, we start to pull out our Outreach items. So Maggie and I go over to my backpack that was taped to the yellow glove box so it wouldn't float. Right as we open the backpack, a paperclip floats out!!!! Maggie and I kinda freak out to get it because we didn't even know it was in there and it really shouldn't have been in the plane at all. This is the funniest part.....Maggie and I go after the paperclip and I am not holding onto anything so I start to float to to top of the plane and grab a hold of Maggie to try and pull myself down! Now I know what it feels like to really float and feel that I am not in control of where I am going. Maggie grabs the paperclip and gravity hits so we both fall to the bottom of the plane. This sounds painful but the plane is padded and it really doesn't hurt when you this happens.
OUTREACH ITEMS!!
Now we are ready to do our outreach items to see how they react in microgravity! Noah the parachute man reacts very different than with gravity. He just floats, and at times he almost floats above his parachute. I hope to find a picture of Noah from NASA's photographer and will post it as soon as we get them. His parachute does not even get to open.
I also let got of my friends book and take a picture of it floating as well.
Allison's gak floats as well and then sticks to her hand!
Maggie's hovercraft just floats around and the balloon deflates without affecting the hovercraft at all.
I thought this was very interesting. I really loved being able to test these items for our students and cannot wait to show them the results!
We do 32 parabolas in 0 gravity and this was when my stomach had just had it. I felt so sick that I decided I needed to go to the back and sit down so Allison and Maggie could do the experiment in martian and lunar gravity. Martian gravity is about 38% of the gravitational pull we have here on Earth. Lunar gravity is about 17% of Earths'. I do not get to experience these gravities in the open space on the plane because by this time I am in a seat so I am a little more stationary hoping my stomach calms down. I do get to see everyone else experience the feeling and I think this was my 'moment' that I made my 'memory'. I was sitting at the back of the plane watching everyone excited jumping around, testing the gravitational pull. Everyone was so excited and having an amazing time. It was at this moment that I realize how amazing this experience is. It was this moment that I stopped and let the experience sink in and all I could think was......'Wow'. After the last parabola #40 everyone cheers and claps! Then they all come back to the seats and we were on our way back to Houston. We all just had the most amazing, once in a lifetime experience, that we have ever had....
'The Vomit Comet' (the plane used to film parts of the movie Apollo 13)
G Force 1 (the one we fly on)
I immediately prepared my backpack with all the items I wanted to fly in microgravity; Noah the parachute guy and my friends book that she wrote.
First, the flight attendant Tim, briefed us on what to do on the plane. He showed us how to work the life masks and vests in case there is a problem and we need oxygen.
Next the doctor that will be on board and giving us our medication came in to talk to us. He said we can call him 'The Candy Man". lol. He told us about the medication they have to give us if we want it; Scopolamine. It is to help calm us if we are really nervous. He said that it lessens the chance of people getting sick by 30%. They give it to us in pill form or in a shot in our arm. I don't like shots at all but decided that I would do the shot because the doc said that it weakens the symptoms so I decided to take the shot. He also gave us 2 'puke bags' (just in case we need them) to put in our flight suit for the flight.
Then we were ready to get on the plane! Here we are walking to the plane:
Once we were on the plane we sat at the back where the seats were for take off. We had to buckle in just like a regular flight as well. We even had safety brochures just like on a regular plane.
After takeoff, the flight attendant advises us we can get out of our seats and get ready for the experiment. I had to go to the yellow compartment box and get our backpack of items we needed for the research; a camera, clipboard and stopwatch to do our research, and Allison's camera for us to take pictures. At this time, we were still in regular 1g gravity.
This is container my backpack was in.
The first time was very challenging! I was trying to grab the #1 container with only my right hand and just couldn't! Finally Maggie yelled, "use your other hand to help!" I think it is hilarious that she had to tell me to do this! HAHAHA! We experience this floating feeling for only about 15 seconds. This is not very much time for us to do the experiment since that is the exact amount of time we need to read the oscillations of each numbered container to measure the mass. Allison counted the oscillations and Maggie timed it as I put in the container; one per parabola. We did this over and over again for about 20 parabolas before I started to feel a little sick. We did take a break and go to 1g (regular gravity) a couple times for the NASA researchers to change something on their experiment. So if you have to go to the bathroom up here, you must go in a bag-like thing on this plane. The flight attendant advised us of this and I didn't think anyone would, but during one of the breaks, a girl from Bryn Mawr just couldn't hold it any longer and had to go.
The feeling of being in microgravity is like nothing else. The first time I felt so many emotions. I was excited and a little freaked out at the same time. I am so fortunate to be apart of this flight! I do have to say it was a little hard to focus at times during the experiment but I was trying my best to get our research done.
After about 27 parabolas of work, we start to pull out our Outreach items. So Maggie and I go over to my backpack that was taped to the yellow glove box so it wouldn't float. Right as we open the backpack, a paperclip floats out!!!! Maggie and I kinda freak out to get it because we didn't even know it was in there and it really shouldn't have been in the plane at all. This is the funniest part.....Maggie and I go after the paperclip and I am not holding onto anything so I start to float to to top of the plane and grab a hold of Maggie to try and pull myself down! Now I know what it feels like to really float and feel that I am not in control of where I am going. Maggie grabs the paperclip and gravity hits so we both fall to the bottom of the plane. This sounds painful but the plane is padded and it really doesn't hurt when you this happens.
OUTREACH ITEMS!!
Now we are ready to do our outreach items to see how they react in microgravity! Noah the parachute man reacts very different than with gravity. He just floats, and at times he almost floats above his parachute. I hope to find a picture of Noah from NASA's photographer and will post it as soon as we get them. His parachute does not even get to open.
I also let got of my friends book and take a picture of it floating as well.
Allison's gak floats as well and then sticks to her hand!
Maggie's hovercraft just floats around and the balloon deflates without affecting the hovercraft at all.
I thought this was very interesting. I really loved being able to test these items for our students and cannot wait to show them the results!
We do 32 parabolas in 0 gravity and this was when my stomach had just had it. I felt so sick that I decided I needed to go to the back and sit down so Allison and Maggie could do the experiment in martian and lunar gravity. Martian gravity is about 38% of the gravitational pull we have here on Earth. Lunar gravity is about 17% of Earths'. I do not get to experience these gravities in the open space on the plane because by this time I am in a seat so I am a little more stationary hoping my stomach calms down. I do get to see everyone else experience the feeling and I think this was my 'moment' that I made my 'memory'. I was sitting at the back of the plane watching everyone excited jumping around, testing the gravitational pull. Everyone was so excited and having an amazing time. It was at this moment that I realize how amazing this experience is. It was this moment that I stopped and let the experience sink in and all I could think was......'Wow'. After the last parabola #40 everyone cheers and claps! Then they all come back to the seats and we were on our way back to Houston. We all just had the most amazing, once in a lifetime experience, that we have ever had....
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
READY!!!......nevermind. Sad day...
We were so ready to fly this morning! My mind was not nervous but my hands were a little shaky at first. Maggie, Allison and I get our experiments ready on the plane ready, and go in for our briefing to get ready to fly.
First, they tell us some great tips....
"Take a moment to really take in and experience what is going on around you in microgravity."
Doug said this to us and I like it. I hope to follow this in the future. Too many times we get really busy in life and forget to "stop and smell the flowers". Great advise Doug!
Next, Dom comes in. He tells us that the weather is bad in the Gulf of Mexico (where we fly) and we will have to try to fly Thursday morning and the second flight Thursday afternoon. We were very sad to hear this but definitely understand. We appreciate that he wants us all to be safe.
I want to tell ya'll about the amazing experiments the other teams are taking on the flight but I must sleep now so I can be ready to fly in the morning. I will post more tomorrow. We all want to get a lot of sleep so we are rested and ready to 'fly correct' tomorrow! Hope for great weather!
First, they tell us some great tips....
"Take a moment to really take in and experience what is going on around you in microgravity."
Doug said this to us and I like it. I hope to follow this in the future. Too many times we get really busy in life and forget to "stop and smell the flowers". Great advise Doug!
Next, Dom comes in. He tells us that the weather is bad in the Gulf of Mexico (where we fly) and we will have to try to fly Thursday morning and the second flight Thursday afternoon. We were very sad to hear this but definitely understand. We appreciate that he wants us all to be safe.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Day 2.....Are You Ready to FLLYYY!!!!!!!!!
We are all set and ready to go!
In the morning we had to prove to the TRR (Test Readiness Review Commitee) about our flight experiments, why we are doing them and why they will be safe on the plane; G-Force 1. This was a little nerve-racking.
NOW we were ready to set up our experiments on the plane! The plane is named G-Force 1. It is very hot inside while setting up experiments....Alison and I were dying...but with help, everything is set up. We will even have our own video camera to tape us on flight! Here is the whole team! (Except our team lead, Ashlee, who was taking the pic)
This is us with the Utah State team. They are doing an amazing experiment to study boiling dynamics in microgravity....it is very complex. They have had experiments flown in Zero-G more than any other team! Here is a shout out to them! https://www.facebook.com/pages/USU-Get-Away-Special-Team/127915967223993
Aaaaannnnnddd....Noooowwww.....the moment we have all been waiting for......
WE GET OUR FLIGHT SUITS!!!!!
These are the signs on the door that they are in:
...and here I am in the AHmazing suit!!!
And here I am ready to fly in my suit! Now....off to sleep so I am ready to go bright in early! Maggie, Alison and I fly tomorrow at 9:30am. WE WILL NOT FAIL! 'Cuase FAILURE is NOT an OPTION.
Go Zero-F Faculty!
In the morning we had to prove to the TRR (Test Readiness Review Commitee) about our flight experiments, why we are doing them and why they will be safe on the plane; G-Force 1. This was a little nerve-racking.
Here we are talking to the TRR!
We all decided this made us more nervous than the flight itself! But, we did very well and we PASSED! They even passed ALL of our outreach items! Some of which many of you helped me decide on....THANK YOU! 
I decided to bring glitter and Skittles in a ziploc, Noah (our parachute man), and a plastic helicopter.
We even got a tweet about the review on the RGEFP's twitter page; NOW we were ready to set up our experiments on the plane! The plane is named G-Force 1. It is very hot inside while setting up experiments....Alison and I were dying...but with help, everything is set up. We will even have our own video camera to tape us on flight! Here is the whole team! (Except our team lead, Ashlee, who was taking the pic)
Aaaaannnnnddd....Noooowwww.....the moment we have all been waiting for......
WE GET OUR FLIGHT SUITS!!!!!
These are the signs on the door that they are in:
HAHAHA!!
...and here I am in the AHmazing suit!!!
Go Zero-F Faculty!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)