Sleeping Blog

It has been a week since our first group of flyers flew in Houston! Time sure flies! I thought I would post something kind of silly today just for fun. This blog post had been joked about all trip. We got so little sleep before the trip and during our time in Houston, that we started to get our zzzz where ever we could! Then we started documenting our odd sleeping behavior and every time a photo was taken of someone sleepiwe joked that it would...

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My Experience: Libby Stewart

My team mates have been writing their reflection posts about their flying experiences, but since I chose not to fly, I am going to write my reflection about my trip to Houston as a whole. This has truly been an unforgettable week! The first three days could be described as hard work with no sleep and high stress. Overcoming the challenges and struggles faced at the beginning of the week made the success at the end of the week even sweeter. I...

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Leaving for Boise, Idaho

In the morning, we packed everything up into suitcases and cardboard boxes and did our best to remain in the 50 lb weight limit for each piece of luggage. When we got to the airport, we found out our flight was delayed. Once we made it to Phoenix, we discovered our connecting flight to Boise was also delayed. During the delays and on the plane, we got to continue to bond as a team, reflect on our experiences from earlier in the week, and became...

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Flight Week: Day 5

Carl taking a picture of Janos taking a picture Today was the official last day of flight week. The teams all met up one final time to look at the T-38 airplanes in  Hanger 276.  Astronauts learn to fly and train in these airplanes. Then we caravanned to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. This is a pool that contains 1:1 replica parts of the International Space Station.  This is where astronauts train in their 400 lb. space suits for...

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My Experience: Jill Hettinger

I am a doctoral student in Education, Curriculum, and Instruction, with a focus on STEM leadership. I became a graduate student advisor for the MicroGravity Team in the fall of 2013. My main role was to advise the students on their outreach experiences. My role in advising the team in their outreach gained me a position as part of the ground crew while in Houston, and I was grateful for the invitation. I had no ambitions of flying in MicroG, because...

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My Experience: Scott Warren

The experience of flying in a zero gravity aircraft is a truly unique experience. The first parabola of weightlessness felt like nothing I have felt before. Your body just floats up and you have no control over it unless you are holding on to something. After a few parabolas of getting used to it, you finally get control of your movements and tell the true feeling of weightlessness. The plane exits hyper gravity and you are able to feel your...

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My Experience: Janos Cserna

Leading up to the flight, I had my own reservations about what was going to happen.  After the previous days flight, we had already learned that while our system did leak, it was not an unmanageable leak, and we could still collect relevant data. Now all that was left for me to worry about was my own reaction to both the drugs and fluctuations in gravity. As it turns out, I was right to be worried.  For the first 8 or so parabolas, the...

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Flight Week: Day 4-Flight Day 2

Mallory showing off her Boise State shirt under her flight suit After yesterday's successful flight the team was looking forward to another great day of experimenting in the "Weightless Wonder." It was Jill, Janos, and Scott's turn to experience what Carl, Roxanne, and Tom had enjoyed the previous day. There was a bit of a delay in the morning, so the flight took off 45 minutes behind schedule. Time went by quickly and our flyers were back...

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My Experince: Carl Barcroft

Carl, Monkey, and Bat checking on the experiment My experience was amazing, although at the beginning I didn't think it would be. We had some issues with our brain cavity leaking and I was initially worried that I would be spending the entire flight trying to mitigate this problem. However, it turned out that while our experiment leaked slightly, the precautionary measures that we took with installing hazmat absorption pads worked as...

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My Experience: Roxanne Stone

  Before Flight Expectations Today is Wednesday, June 11th. My morning started with a team lead meeting at 7:45am like it has all flight week. Except today it was different, it not only started with the Geico "Hump Day" commercial, but at the end the director of the Reduced Gravity Office said "it's also flight day." After every engineering challenge, not only in Houston, but throughout the last year I just feel pure excitement...

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