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Lakota West graduate experiences zero gravity in NASA program - Contributed By Carrie Whitaker, The Enquirer, April 17, 2007

Zero gravity. It's indescribable, says Purdue University senior Josh Mason.

Most will never experience this scientific phenomenon, but at 22 years old, the student from West Chester Township has experienced it - not once - but twice.

"The closest thing I can compare it to, is being in a pool - like buoyancy," Mason said. "I've tried to explain it, but I basically come down to telling people 'you have to try it to understand.'"

For the second year, the 2003 graduate of Lakota West High School has participated in the Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program through NASA.

Mason is in the fourth year of a five year program to become an aeronautical and astronautical engineer. "Basically planes and rockets," he said.

Mason and four other teammates began putting together the proposal for the NASA program in July 2006. This year, two teams from Purdue were selected to participate in the program. Three team members graduated from high schools in Greater Cincinnati.

One of Mason's teammates, Brandon White graduated in 2003 from Fairfield High School. The other team included Alexandria Estes from Glen Este High School.

Basically, acceptance into the program means the students get to propose, design, build, fly and evaluate a reduced gravity experiment.

The team tested their experiment aboard NASA's "Weightless Wonder," a C-9 aircraft that can produce periods of weightlessness lasting 18 to 25 seconds at a time. Thirty times, the plane would fly a series of 30 parabolas - a steep climb followed by a free fall - over the Gulf of Mexico. It was the same type of plane used to film "Apollo 13".

"You are doing two experiments at once, one is the one you designed and the other is how you are going to react to being weightless," Mason said. "It's an incredibly bizarre and awesome experience."

His team was in Florida on March 8-16 testing how to get every last drop out of fuel tanks in zero gravity. Fuel is often wasted or lost in space with current equipment, Mason said.

But while they were flying, the group also performed a number of experiments designed by elementary and high school students. As part of the team's proposal, they arranged to work with eight classes - including Lakota West's Advanced Placement Physics class, taught by Linda Noble.

"We would speak about space and science and technology," Mason said. "The students designed an experiment, we built it for them and it flew on the plane with us. We will be going back to each class in the spring to present the results. NASA's huge in educational outreach and (our project) helped get the word out."