NES/SEMAA PROGRAM OVERVIEW

NASA scientists, engineers, and researchers use the reduced gravity environment in the jet to test space-flight hardware, space craft components, and space-flight procedures. With the coming of age of the Space Transportation System and the current plans for the Space Station, microgravity environment is ideal for the development and verification of space hardware, investigations, crew training and it is also ideal for doing basic research.

NASA Explorer Schools and the Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program Office at Johnson Space Center, Houston Texas announce an opportunity for NASA Explorer School students and educators to design an investigation and fly it on NASA’s Reduced Gravity aircraft. The aircraft provides a reduced gravity environment, similar to the environment of space flight. The reduced gravity environment is achieved by flying an aircraft through a series of parabolic maneuvers (see below). These maneuvers will be flown consecutively, i.e. roller coaster fashion. Normal missions, lasting approximately 1.7 hours, consist of 30 parabolic maneuvers over the Gulf of Mexico. Each parabola provides about 30 seconds of hypergravity (about 1.8G-2G) as the plane climbs to the top of the parabola. Once the plane starts to “nose over” the top of the parabola to descend toward Earth, the plane experiences about 18 to 25 seconds of microgravity (0G). At the very top and bottom of the parabola, flyers experience a mix of partial G's between 0 and 1.8 (called "dirty air"). The aircraft test deck is equipped with electrical power and photo lights. NASA JSC will provide photographers for still photography and video coverage during the flight. Workspace on the ground for assembly of investigations will be provided.

The NES Reduced Gravity Flight Opportunity provides a unique experience for NES students and teachers to propose, design, fabricate, fly and evaluate a reduced gravity investigation of their choice over the course of approximately four months. The overall experience includes scientific research, hands-on investigational design, test operations and educational/public outreach activities. NES investigations will adhere to the same processes and procedures governing NASA research and test flights so that NES students and teachers gain insight into the workings of NASA and ensure participant and investigation safety guidelines are followed.

The NES RGO has been extended to the NASA Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy (SEMAA). SEMAA sites are encouraged to submit proposals according to the guidelines and timeline.  Two teams of four educators and an alternate will be competitively selected to travel to Johnson Space Center to fly it on NASA's Reduced Gravity aircraft.

During the flight, the flight team will initiate and conduct the investigation, and collect data on behalf of the students. Conditions permitting, each investigation will be flown twice so that there can be replication of the investigation and any problems encountered during the first flight can be corrected during the second.

Flight Trajectory

The above diagram shows a typical zero-g maneuver. However, the maneuver can be modified to provide any level of g-force less than one g. Some typical g-levels used on different tests and the corresponding time for each maneuver are as follows: