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)

'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.

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....