Heather Smith’s NASA Free Falling Blog
Getting down to business
Today was our first day at Ellington Field. All the teams met this morning for a safety briefing and then started working on assembling their experiments.
I actually met my team last night for dinner. I thought it would be a good idea to get all of the introductions out of the way before things got busy today. None of the team has been to Houston before so I recommended we eat at a local Italian place that I’ve been to every time I’ve made the trip to Johnson. It’s an astronaut favorite with walls covered in autographed photos of the space shuttle crews who frequent there. I think the team really enjoyed the food, and we all chatted about where we’re from, what they’re studying in school, and just got to know each other.
Getting down to business
Today was our first day at Ellington Field. All the teams met this morning for a safety briefing and then started working on assembling their experiments.
I actually met my team last night for dinner. I thought it would be a good idea to get all of the introductions out of the way before things got busy today. None of the team has been to Houston before so I recommended we eat at a local Italian place that I’ve been to every time I’ve made the trip to Johnson. It’s an astronaut favorite with walls covered in autographed photos of the space shuttle crews who frequent there. I think the team really enjoyed the food, and we all chatted about where we’re from, what they’re studying in school, and just got to know each other.
The team is from the University of Colorado at Boulder. There’s Kristian, Karina, Steven, Swarandeep and Chris. They’re a small, close-knit team, and they’re very fun. They’re very serious about their project but also know what a cool thing it is they’re doing – not just the flight but the whole opportunity. Right now, as I’m writing, they’re talking with one of the NASA structural engineers who help the students work any issues and get their projects ready to fly. What an incredible opportunity for these students to get the input and support from a NASA engineer! I’m having a blast observing them get to do such a unique thing! One last member of Colorado team’s is their NASA mentor Ashley Tarpley. Ashley flew as part of a student team while a student herself, and this will be her third flight as a mentor.
“Home base” is NASA Hangar 990. When I first walked in I saw this gigantic airplane with its various doors open and people working on it. My stomach did a little flip because I thought this was the plane – the plane in which I would experience weightlessness. But during the introduction they told us that it actually isn’t the plane. So it lost a tad bit of its cool factor, but then it was quickly redeemed when they said that plane had just flown back from being part of the STS-125 shuttle ferry mission. It’s quite the experience to be sitting in a hangar with that plane directly in front of me. Sure beats the cubicle where I sit everyday! I also hear planes fly overhead every now and then and the open hangar allows a nice breeze to blow through.
The teams are all so hard at work, some having to re-construct boxes where their experiments will go, some taping foam onto sharp corners, and everyone getting all the components in place. The students all seem a little stressed – not in a bad way but in a way that communicates how important this project is to them. They’re all so serious, all throwing out ideas, debating options and seeking solutions.
Our team basically has today and Monday to get everything put together, any issues worked out and everything approved for Tuesday’s flight. Tomorrow and the weekend are not an option unless they work on something in their hotel over the weekend. Tomorrow is all training so there will be no time in the hangar to work on their projects.
Heather Smith’s NASA Free Falling Blog: Expert advice
I talked with my second weightlessness expert last night. By “expert,” I mean anyone who has flown in the reduced-gravity aircraft over and over again and continues to do so. Liz Warren is a NASA scientist – a physiologist, to be exact – and as part of her day job supports the coordination of life sciences experiments on the International Space Station. But Liz is so excited about things like NASA and spaceflight and students that she volunteers to mentor student and teacher teams that are flying experiments as part of the reduced-gravity project. She’s flown about eight times and has gotten sick every time. But, she said it’s worth it to experience the weightlessness and the opportunity to help others experience it too.
Since I’m kind of nervous about getting sick, I quizzed her more about this part. First, she wasn’t sick the entire time, and interestingly, she doesn’t get sick until towards the end. I thought that if I were to get sick it would be immediately, on the first parabola even, and then after you got used to it you might feel better. But in Liz’s experience, she was fine for the first 15-20 parabolas, but then her body has had enough and starts to let her know that. As strange as it may sound, I find that rather comforting. Because I expected to get sick early, the thought of being sick early and then having to stay on the plane and keep going over and over made me nervous. What if I was sick the entire time and it wasn’t enjoyable at all? But, knowing that I might be able to enjoy at least half of the parabolas calms my nerves just a bit.
Liz was a great help, telling things to think about before I go and to have a plan of what pictures I want – both to take with my own camera and to have taken of me – because it goes by fast and it’s easy to get caught up in the fun and the wonderment of it only to realize it’s almost over and you’ve not done everything you wanted to do. Good advice!
Heather Smith’s NASA Free Falling Blog: First day in Houston
My flight left for Houston at 6 this morning, which means I left for the airport at 4:30, which means I woke up at 3. That’s quite early even for a morning person.
The flight over was fine – I read a little, napped a little, ate a muffin and juice. I landed just before 8 and was on-site at Johnson Space Center by 9:30. I’m setting up temporary office in the Teaching From Space office, which just happens to be in the astronaut building. It’s quite cool to work even just one day in this building.
I spent several hours with videographer Regan Geeseman who has flown hundreds of microgravity flights and will be on my flight next week. We did our interview at a barbeque restaurant over yummy Texas barbeque. Then he showed me over to his building where all the video and photo stuff here go on.
Talking with Regan was a lot of fun! Doing a one-on-one interview makes me wish I could do all of my interviews in person. Because we interview people from all over, a lot of the interviews I do these days are over the phone or via email. So it was such a treat today to talk with Regan in person and pickup on how excited he is about what he does for NASA.
Regan has been a videographer at Johnson Space Center for a long time and recorded or photographed lots of cool stuff. He’s been shooting photos and video on NASA’s reduced-gravity aircraft for about 10 years. He estimated that he’s flown close to 10,000 parabolas in NASA’s reduced-gravity aircraft and possibly spent more time in microgravity than some of the early astronauts.
When we first talked about interviewing people who fly on reduced-gravity flights as part of their job, I expected to hear people talk about how fun it is and what a blast they have doing it again and again. And Regan said all of those things. Yet while he sincerely enjoys working in microgravity, he was also honest that sometimes he is bumped into – or kicked – by someone floating out of control. He admitted that flying now is still fun, but it’s not as exhilarating as it was the first few times. I appreciate that he told the other side of the story. Those are things I hadn’t thought of or expected.
One thing Regan is so evidently excited about is his role in capturing videos and photos of the research that goes on in these aircraft. He talked with passion about helping the different engineers and scientists and students get the right equipment and angles to get exactly the images or videos they need for their projects. He told me that he doesn’t think about floating around and having fun while he’s up there. He focuses on the cameras and what he needs to do to get the shot. “If we have a failure or make a mistake, they don’t get that data back.”
Regan’s actually going to be one of the camera guys on my flight so I’m glad that on my first day here I met someone who can sort of show me the ropes.
Heather Smith’s NASA Free Falling Blog: The Adventure Begins
This week, my journey into microgravity begins. I leave out early Wednesday morning for Houston for a week of training and then, on next Tuesday, my reduced-gravity flight.
Our team has wanted to send a writer on a reduced-gravity flight to write about it for quite a while. The opportunity came up earlier this year and our team lead offered it to the senior writer on our team. Because he had flown on a reduced-gravity flight in 2007, he passed the opportunity on to me. His rationale: it is better for two writers to each have flown once than one writer to have flown two times.
So we’ve worked the last few months to get everything in place. Now that it’s here it’s a little unreal. I’ve not really had time to be too nervous about it because it’s been work as usual until time to go. Now that it’s here, well, the butterflies are setting in. I’m nervous about the training, especially the hypobaric altitude chamber. I’m of course concerned about getting sick during the flight. I don’t want to miss such a cool experience because I’m sick the whole time! I hope I’m able to do some cool tricks like turn a somersault in mid-air or eat floating candies. I’m even nervous about what to wear and how my flightsuit will fit. (I’ve worn a flightsuit only once before and it was the most comfortable and yet most uncomfortable clothing, both at the same time.)
Since training doesn’t actually begin until Thursday, on Wednesday I’ll be interviewing some folks who work for NASA about their careers. When I get back I’ll write up career profiles for our students pages. We write these profiles every so often to show students the variety of careers at NASA. This time, I’ll be interviewing people who have jobs related to reduced-gravity flights. We’ve requested interviews with a pilot, a photographer and a scientist.
I’m looking forward to Thursday when I meet up with the student team from the University of Colorado at Boulder and see their experiment on the Wilberforce Pendulum.
