Lakeview Teachers Recall Experience With 'Zero-G' Experiment At NASA
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
While the experiment didn't go totally as planned, the Lakeview Middle School teachers had a blast conducting it at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, last week.
Teachers Dan Wray, Mark McCollom, Roger Haeck and Jose Gutierrez were one of the 11 school teams selected to conduct an experiment at the Johnson Space Center. Their project was to find out what soil types best absorb water in near-zero gravity. The experiment, titled "Effects of Microgravity on the Absorption of Water by Various Soil Types," was performed aboard NASA's Reduced Gravity Aircraft as it flew parabolic maneuvers. Each parabola gives the flyers and experiments almost half a minute of weightlessness.
The four teachers drove down to Houston March 6, their experiment in tow, said McCollom. The first day was orientation in a giant hangar, next to the aircraft. All 11 teams were there, including one group from Ecuador, said McCollom. Lakeview's team was the only middle school team.
Haeck said it was "really cool" to be in the hangar and see the plane right there.
The second day in Houston, the groups listened to lectures all morning. McCollom said the coolest thing that day was the hypobaric (altitude) chamber.
"That was really cool," he said. "You had to wear a mask and we were breathing 100 percent oxygen and had to inhale and exhale harder than normal.""I was freaking out," said Gutierrez.
During the lectures, McCollom said they were told about what could go wrong during the flight and weightlessness. Each participant also was tested to see how they responded to oxygen depravation, or hypoxia.
"I think all four of us did real well," said McCollom.
Wray said he sat next to Gutierrez when they tested him for hypoxia. He doesn't remember the 90 seconds. Haeck said as people are tested, others watch. One guy's eyes glazed over while he was tested and didn't respond to NASA official's questions. Haeck said the man eventually snapped out of it.
McCollom said during the hypoxia test, you don't even realize what is going on. Then they show the videotape of your reaction and you see what you really did during the test and it's nothing like how you expected you did.
Over the March 8-9 weekend, McCollom said they got to see more of Houston. They even went to dinner and church with a NASA astronaut. They took some of that time to ask him many questions.
Monday, it was back to work on the experiment. McCollom said NASA engineers spoke to the group, and each group had to verify their experiment. They had to show that the experiment would work and not be problematic.
Wray and technical adviser Sally Nash went up on their flight March 11. Wray said that in almost every way, it went as expected. They had to work fast and keep up with the work. However, of the six computer interface datalogs, four of them malfunctioned. Only a third of the experiment on the first day accurately recorded the results, Wray said.
"They did an excellent job, I thought, on procedure," said McCollom.
For McCollom's and Gutierrez's March 12 flight, the problems were fixed, said Wray.
While up on their flight, McCollom said they kept busy with their experiment. McCollom said they were working so hard, his forehead left an imprint on the plexiglass.
"I would have liked to have more time to play around, but we were there to get the data," said McCollom.
Gutierrez said that while they didn't have much time to take pictures, other groups around them did and took many photos of McCollom and himself working.
McCollom said he is very encouraged by the results from the March 12 experiment. Lakeview students, Wray said, will analyze the data.
While at Houston, the teachers did a Web cast for the entire Lakeview and Edgewood middle school student bodies. Reaching about 1,500 students, McCollom said NASA was very impressed with how many students the teachers reached.
Gutierrez said the most common question he got was about how it felt to be weightless. He told the students it was very cool, fun and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He also talked to the students for a bit in Spanish. Gutierrez said the Spanish-speaking students appreciated hearing about the trip in Spanish so they better understood what went on.
McCollom said they very much appreciate the glove box built for the experiment by Scott Carmichael. The glove box exceeded their expectations, he said.
"It was very well built and held up very well," said Haeck.
On one of their last days in Houston, the foursome toured NASA, went into Missions Control and were taken through the old Apollo Control Room. Haeck said the Apollo controls look almost primitive to what NASA has now.
"Just being there is amazing," said Haeck.
He said NASA invited the Lakeview teachers to put more experiment proposals forward. Their adviser, Haeck said, was anxious for them to put forth more proposals. He said they were lucky to have the good advisers that they did.
