Five students from Western Oregon University have been chosen by NASA to test their science experiments while floating aboard the agency’s famous “Weightless Wonder” aircraft. These adventurous students include Amanda Martin (Corvallis), Avery Cotton (Beaverton), William Bowers (Klamath Falls), Ronald Wessels (Rogue River), and Debbie Clark (Dayton).

Each year, the Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston gives undergraduate student teams the opportunity to research, design, fabricate, fly and evaluate a reduced gravity experiment. The student teams follow much the same path as scientists who develop experiments that fly in space.

This year, 50 teams have been selected to test their designs during a roller coaster-like ride that produces brief periods of microgravity, similar to what astronauts experience during spaceflight. A NASA C-9 aircraft, the military version of a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 jet airliner, flies a series of carefully choreographed maneuvers to achieve this effect. Students will experience how the human body reacts during the 30 “hill climbs and freefalls” on each flight that create weightlessness 25 seconds at a time.

The WOU student team will fly during July, and will test their Physics Feasibility Test of a Rotating Fluidized Bed Space Reactor experiment. This experiment will determine the rotational velocity necessary for critical particle fluidization in microgravity and compare experimental results with computer-generated models. Three months after their flights, the team is expected to issue a final report to include their scientific findings, analysis of the experiment’s effectiveness, and conclusions drawn from the findings. The long-term goals of the experiment are to ensure the sustainability of both the Western Oregon and Oregon State University Microgravity Flight Teams. In addition the team plans to develop several permanent outreach programs within the state of Oregon to (a) encourage youth to pursue careers in science, math, engineering, and education, (b) increase space flight awareness in the general public, and (c) increase Earth awareness in the general public.