On Wednesday, everyone from our team arrived in Houston, TX for our microgravity flight week. We spent most of that evening making a plan for the week and figuring out everything that still needed to get done. That night, we were all able to sleep for 10-12 hours which was a nice change of pace from our normal routine.
Thursday was the official start of our flight week. After arriving at Ellington Field, we were able to get badged and find our workstation for the week. A total of 14 teams are participating in our flight week, including an additional team from the U of A. We were briefed on major safety concerns and introduced to the individuals from the Reduced Gravity Office as well as the Aircraft Operations Division at Johnson Space Center. The group then split up. Most of our team started performing some final work on our structure while Kyle attended a more thorough orientation session.
Thursday was the official start of our flight week. After arriving at Ellington Field, we were able to get badged and find our workstation for the week. A total of 14 teams are participating in our flight week, including an additional team from the U of A. We were briefed on major safety concerns and introduced to the individuals from the Reduced Gravity Office as well as the Aircraft Operations Division at Johnson Space Center. The group then split up. Most of our team started performing some final work on our structure while Kyle attended a more thorough orientation session.
At the orientation, Kyle learned many details. Fun facts: each minute our plane is in the air costs $638, bobby pins can kill us all, and the 9-g load requirement is for a crash scenario. We also learned that each of our flights will consist of 34 parabolas, with 28 zero-g, 3 lunar (1/6-g), and 3 martian (1/3-g). This flight profile consists of more lunar and martian parabolas than normal, but several projects requested them, so the modification was made with all teams' approval.
That evening, most of the teams had dinner at Gatti's Pizza - a very formal pizza parlor + arcade (think Chuck E. Cheese's). At the dinner, we were able to meet individuals from many of the other teams - we even found some SEDS Michigan members! It will be great to have the opportunity to learn more about everyone's experiment and network with the other teams here.
That evening, most of the teams had dinner at Gatti's Pizza - a very formal pizza parlor + arcade (think Chuck E. Cheese's). At the dinner, we were able to meet individuals from many of the other teams - we even found some SEDS Michigan members! It will be great to have the opportunity to learn more about everyone's experiment and network with the other teams here.
Tomorrow will be spent working more on our structure and attending the Physiological Training (a mandatory training for flight). Our weekend plans are still "to be determined," but we are hoping to explore Houston and the surrounding area. We are expecting a few articles about this experience to be written for the Arizona Daily Star and UANews, so make sure to watch those new outlets for those articles!
Posted by Kyle Stephens
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