I had a great time last week serving again as a mentor for NASA’s Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. It was the “Teaching from Space” week so once again I got to work with a group of elementary school teachers — three from Flagstaff, Arizona and two from Atlanta. This was the 5th time I have worked as a mentor and the 6th time I’ve gotten to fly in microgravity and I’m sure it won’t surprise you to hear that it NEVER gets old. It is ALWAYS a fun time. And here’s my other secret — I think the teacher teams are more fun than the student teams! They are always so excited to be there and so passionate about getting real results to take back to their students.
I flew with Kaci, the team lead, and Beth. They teach at two different schools in Flagstaff. This photo was taken before we started the parabolas.
Lauren, one of the NASA photographers who flew with us, is actually a new friend from book club. She took this photo of me early in the flight. It’s impossible not to look super happy when you are weightless! I was also told, once again, that I have good zero-g hair.
The elementary students decided they wanted to test bubbles in microgravity and see if they acted differently than they do on the ground. We knew we wouldn’t be able to just blow bubbles willy-nilly around the airplane cabin, so they used a toy bubble gun and put it inside a glove box to contain the bubbles. They put a servo-motor on the bubble gun so that all you had to do to make bubbles was push a button on the outside that was connected to the motor. It was fun watching the bubbles — in microgravity, they had a tendency to clump together into superbubbles!
I have no idea what I was doing in this photo. I think I may have been reaching for a plush Angry Bird that one of the education staff had brought onboard. It was floating away.
You can see more of the Angry Bird in this video that I took. It spans one 2G pullout and one 0G portion!
And here’s the full set of official photos:
The angry bird made me laugh! I didn’t realize the zero G portions were so short. Do they tell people to lay down for the 2G portion or do people just do that because it’s more comfortable?
Yeah, the zero G bits are short — about 20 seconds max. You have to either sit down or lay down during 2G. The only people who are allowed to stand are the ones who have flown a lot and therefore know what to expect. If you fell during 2G, you could really hurt yourself. Also, it’s the 2G portion that tends to make people sick more than the 0G, and sitting or lying down and staying still helps you avoid motion sickness. I prefer to lay down.