Flight of the 727!

Wow, what an experience. Our flight went the full distance. That means we did 30 parabolas in zero G, one in Martian gravity, and one in Lunar gravity. At the top of the parabolas we got about 25 seconds of weightlessness to perform our experiment. Mrs. Houlihan found it extremely difficult to perform the balloon rocket car experiment because she needed both hands to pump up the balloon and hold the cars. Mrs. Ruiz (Ms. Sarah), our mentor, kept time on the stopwatch to see how long it took the cars to travel down the track. We were surprised with the results. The cars took longer to travel down the track in zero G then in earth's gravity. The card balloon rocket car performed better then the paper plate balloon rocket car.

After our flight we had our entire team do a DLN (Distance Learning Network). It was a huge success! We had over 300 students, 15 teachers, and 12 parents in attendance. We were able to tell the students about our flight and the children asked some wonderful questions.

Tomorrow, Ms. Prows will fly, wish her luck.

Exhausted!

Oh what a day! I am exhaused so, I will write in the morning.
Til then....

Flying High!

Well, the day has come, we are flying in Zero-G today with the students experiments. Everything our students have worked for and created will be put to the test of micro-gravity today. Congratulations boys and girls, job well done. We will be sending the data to you today for the balloon rocket cars. We will talk to you after the flight. Wish us luck!

Experiment Loaded on the Zero G Plane

We started the day with skypeing back to the kinders this morning. It was SO exciting. We had 3 wonderful NASA experts, 2 mentors and 1 director of the NASA Education program, talk to the students. They learned about the different education levels, types of degrees, and the jobs the men hold. The students were then able to ask questions. What a wonderful opportunity for North Ridge students.

Wow, we can't believe tomorrow is the day to fly!! It was a busy day. We fine tuned our experiments, loaded them on the Zero G plane, were issued flight suits and briefed on anti-motion sickness via a video and speaker. So much information to take in, but we were told not to panic. We should take it slow and easy on the plane, no quick movements. If we follow this advice, the flight should be fine. We are definitely taking the expert advice. Wish us luck.

See you at the DLN.

DLN April 29, 2010

Just a reminder: Our DLN is scheduled for Thursday, April 29 at 11:20. Four of our team members will be getting off of their flight between 11:00 and 11:15, so, please be patient. The DLN should be in the MPR. See you after the our flight.

Johnson Space Center Tour of Building 9

We went on another amazing tour. This time of building 9 at Johnson Space Center. In this building we saw some mock-ups or replicas of the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle. We learned about past and future shuttle missions. The shuttle will not be flying much longer and in its place will be Ares and Orion.

We worked on the experiment some more and had to run to the stores for supplies again. We also did some practice runs of the experiment today.

Finally, we had an awesome presentation by a former high school teacher who is now a NASA educator. He presented us with some great websites for resources and told us about many opportunities available to both teachers and students alike. We can't wait to look at the sites.

On the way back to the hotel, we went Geo Caching again. Well, it was Mrs. Houlihan's first time. It was pretty cool. This cache was found hidden on a plane. Amazing!

Amazing Monday TRR, Hypobaric Chamber and NBL

What an amazing day, our team was on the go all day. We started our morning bright and early as usual. We got to the hangar on Ellington Field by 7:00 am. We had a brief to let us know about the schedule for the day and changes that have occurred for the rest of the week. One of those changes is the plane. Mrs. Houlihan will fly on the Zero Gravity 727 plane on Thursday. Ms. Prows will fly on the NASA C-9 plane on Friday. The NASA C-9 plane is the same plane Mrs. Houihan, Mr. Knapp, Mrs. Kollar, and Mrs. Groty flew on in 2008 and 2006.
Next, we proceeded to set-up the experiment exactly as it will be set up on the plane. This was in preparation for the TRR that I spoke about yesterday, the safety review. The 20+ member safety team made up of NASA engeneers went to each RGO Team to hear about each schools experiment and what we have done to the equipment to make it safe. For example, in our tornado tube we put silicone sealant around the threads of the tube to ensure that water would not escape the lexan bottles during flight. We got the O.K. and the experiment is safe to fly!
Next, we left Ellington Field (EF) and headed to another part of town to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL). Our time was so packed today that we skyped with our kinders while driving in the car to the NBL! Wow, it was SO neat. The boys and girls had some amazing questions.
At the NBL we had hypobaric chamber training which completed our NASA Physiological Training. We learned how to put on really cool green gas masks for oxygen and flight helmets. We went into the chamber for about an hour. While in the chamber all of the air is sucked out to simulate flight to 25,000 feet. This is how high our planes will fly us and the experiment. At 25, 000 we had to remove our masks for 5 minutes to see how our bodies would react to lack of oxygen or "hypoxia". Some symptoms of this are hot, dizzy, light headed, dull vision, or getting silly or nasty. We needed to learn our symptoms and how we would react in the event of a real emergency. Our team did a fabulous job.
After the chamber, we had an incredible tour of the NBL. This is a 6.2 million gallon pool . This is where astronauts train to do space walks. They also get to simulate fixing the International Space Station (ISS) since they have mock-up modules in the pool. In fact, we got to see real astronauts training in the pool via a TV screen. It was so exciting!
Remember, state testing starts tomorrow. Everyone make sure you get plenty of rest so you are prepared to Soar To Six for North Ridge.

Relaxing

Mrs. Houlihan spent the day with her sister-in-law and brother-in-law at the National Museum of Funeral History. It had a section on past American President funerals, Pope funerals, embalming during the Civil War, and a display of caskets through time. This was an fascinating day.
Ms. Prows spent the day at the movies and relaxing.
Now, it is time to meet with the team for our practice run of our Test Readiness Review (TRR) tomorrow. During this review we will present our project to a team of safety experts to see if the experiment is sturdy and safe enough to fly on the reduced gravity plane. We will also make a storyboard for our final presentations which consist of a powerpoint and video to be uploaded to teacher tube. We will record our experience through the entire RGO process from experiment idea to flight. Wish us luck.

The Weekend

Ms. Prows went with the rest of the team on a Geo caching expedition led by our own team member, Mr. Hammond. They were successful in finding 4 caches and not all of them were in obvious places.

Mrs. Houlihan met up with her sister-in-law and brother-in-law and spent the day at the San Jacinto Monument. They were able to watch the reenactment of the Battle of San Jacinto. It was a wonderful day.

All team members had a meal at a Texas original BBQ restaurant called T-Bone Tom's, featured on "Diner, Drive-Ins, and Dives". It was fantastic! We also spent some time at Kemah Boardwalk. It has a carnival-like atmosphere with beautiful lights in the evening.

Lastly, we met together to do some work and practice for our experiment review on Monday.

"Free Air Release Technique"

Today we learned about the various gases in our bodies and how they react in high altitudes. On Monday we will be entering a hypobaric chamber and brought to an altitude of 25,000 feet to see how our bodies react to the reduced air pressure and oxygen in our bodies. We continue to work and fine tune our experiment.

Sarah, Our NASA Mentor

Sarah is our NASA mentor who is assisting us with our project. North Ridge RGO students will remember Sarah from her visit to our school in February. Sarah works with the Space Shuttle program. She is a rendezvous officer in Mission Control at Johnson Space Center.

1st day "on the job"

We had a full day of meetings that included details about our flight, safety, and schedule for the week. We got to see the plane that we will be flying on as well as all of the experiments that will be conducted along side ours. Our experiment is looking good. The board is much bigger because we are attaching the pinball machine, air pump, and clipboard to it.

We skyped back to our kindergarten class, what an amazing experience. I don't know who enjoyed it more, the kinders or Ms. Prows and me.

Houston Arrival Successful

A wonderful cookie basket awaited us in our hotel room for our team. Thank you Cheryl and Dewayne.
We have arrived in Houston and had our first "briefing". We went out to the store to buy our board and silicone. We will be meeting at Johnson Space Center in the morning to do some set up and then have an important safety meeting. Some of the experiments that will be flown with ours sound just as amazing as ours!