Today was the day we've been waiting for!! Mrs. Weems and I had our flight today, and it was amazing!! We have been briefed all week on what to expect, but words do not begin to do justice to the experience!

The flight team: Christine, Mrs. Weems, and Ms. Duggar



We started our morning, as usual, with the morning meeting. Since we were flying today, we had two additional meetings: a medications briefing and a flight team briefing. In the medical briefing, the flight surgeon explained the anti-motion sickness medications and gave us the option of whether or not to take it. We all opted for the medication, and I almost immediately began to feel the effects. The second briefing allowed teams to request special flight instructions to facilitate their experiments. By 9:00 we were ready to board the plane, and we took off around 9:30. The ground crew was there to see us off, and after a few minutes of flying, we were ready to go to work.

Christine, our NASA mentor, flew with us today, and she helped us get everything set up in time for the zero-g maneuvers. John, the mission leader, would call out our status-- going into the climb, headed over the top of the parabola, when we were in true zero-g, and "feet down" when we were ready to come out of the free-fall. The apparatus worked flawlessly. I can't say the same for the human component of the experiment. We had everything ready to go when we first went weightless, but I'm not sure we accomplished much. Working in zero gravity is an indescribable sensation, and needless to say, it takes some getting used to. We did manage to gather data from almost every parabolic maneuver, but occassionally we would float into the camera and block the data recording or hit the wrong button on our controller. Once or twice we just stopped to take some pictures and enjoy the ride.



Both Christine and I managed to make it through the entire flight without getting sick. Poor Mrs. Weems was not so lucky. She lasted about half-way through the parabolas and then had to head to the back of the plane for the rest of the flight. Unfortunately, she was one of the 16% of people who take to pre-flight medications and still get sick.

After we landed, we had our post-flight briefing and then downloaded our experiment to prepare to send it back home. We said goodbye to the wonderful NASA crew who led us through this experience, and left Ellington Field for the final time. I think we are all ready to leave the Texas plains behind and head back to our Tennessee mountains, but we have truly had an unforgetable ten days here in Houston.

Success!!

Mandy from Hands-On, Dr. Henson and Christine, our NASA mentor, flew with our apparatus today. Everything worked! We made bubbles in zero-g!! WHEW!! Neither of the "home team" had any problems with motion sickness, but apparently Christine wasn't so lucky. In spite of being sick today, she is planning to go up tomorrow with Mrs. Weems and me. Mandy said it was great, so I am really looking forward to the experience.

The flight took place this morning, so we were only at Ellington field for a short time. We spent the afternoon on a tour of the Johnson Space Center. We went to the old Mission Control room where they directed the Apollo missions and had a chance to sit at the controls. We also visited the new Mission Control rooms from which they direct the space shuttle flights and monitor the International Space Station. Also on the tour was the building where the astronauts train on shuttle and space station mock-ups and the vacuum chamber that simulates outer space conditions (atmospheric pressure that is one 760-millionth of Earth's). We also learned about the pressure suits that astronauts wear for EVA, Extra-Vehicular Activity or space walks.

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After being lost in Houston for a while, the team finally made it to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

Tomorrow is the big day for Mrs. Weems and me. We are looking forward to flying, but we are a little nervous also. We'll share all the details tomorrow!!

As our flight day gets closer, we are getting more and more excited. We arrived at Ellington Field early to make a few adjustments. Because we have tested the apparatus over and over, we know that everything will work, but we can't seem to leave it alone. We know that we only have a couple of chances to get a perfect run in zero gravity.

While we were working today, one of the MIT team members came over to see our project. He had several questions about how things worked, particularly how we had managed to contain our solutions. He told us our idea was "pretty smart." We're feeling pretty good about ourselves since we have officially impressed MIT!!

The team's main task today was to load the apparatus onto the plane and bolt it into place. For the flight team, this was our first time on the C-9 but the ground crew had already been aboard during their special tour last week. The NASA flight directors made certain that everything was secure, and we are ready to go for the first team flight tomorrow. Be sure to check out the video that the ground crew shot during loading today. Click the link below and be patient because it may take some time to load, but it's worth the wait--especially the end.

After loading, the flight crew stayed at Ellington Field to pick up our flight suits (start humming the Top Gun theme here) and have another briefing on how to avoid motion sickness. Of course, several teams will be flying with us, and we are starting to feel a real sense of camaraderie with them.

We got some exciting news during our meeting today. One of the teams invited a Channel One reporter as their journalist. When she learned that Greeneville High is a Channel One school she decided to interview our students on Friday. We don't yet know when their story will air, but we look forward to seeing our very deserving students receive some national attention.

While we were in our briefing, April took the kids to the mall that is just down the street from our hotel. Tonight, we went to downtown Houston to see the Astros play the Pittsburg Pirates. The Astros have a new indoor stadium that is really impressive. Of course, the place is huge and one side is completely glass so fans can see the downtown buildings. It really is a beautiful setting for a baseball game. The Astros had a good night. They had hit about seven homeruns and were ahead 14-1 when we left during the eighth inning. We stopped at Sonic for post-game snacks and spent some time just talking with the students.

Mrs. Weems and I continue to be so impressed with the talents, enthusiasm, maturity and work ethic of these young people. As we have come to know them better, we have increasingly come to love and respect them. Our GHS team has worked hard and has overcome many challenges to complete this project, and I think that all of us are glad that it is coming to a successful end. I am sad, though, that in the near future I will be spending less time with these five wonderful students. They have made this an unfogettable experience for me, and I am very grateful that I have had the opportunity to work with them.

This video may take a few minutes to download but make sure you watch all of it! The students get really creative at the end.

Video of the loading of the project onto the C-9 airplane

Hello Greeneville! I guess a lot of you are getting ready for your first day back at school. Ha ha ha!! Well we are sitting here in our cozy hotel room thinking about how late we are going to sleep tomorrow. Lol. Anyway, we are having a great time here in Houston! Today we went to Six Flags Waterpark and had just an outstanding time until it started storming and we had to leave. The first few days we had here in Houston were alot of work with debugging our apparatus and testing and actually getting some bubbles for NASA to see during our TRR inspection. While most of the other teams were doing their physiological training, we students were lucky enough to have a tour of Ellington Field and we got to see alot of the NASA aircraft. Tomorrow we load our experiment onto the C-9B test aircraft. This week should actually be pretty lax for us all, although the teachers are going to be quite busy. At TRR yesterday, we had a giant science fair deal going on when the NASA officials came by. Dr. Henson was our "spokesperson" and explained the workings of our entire apparatus while we stood behind the machine and smiled, but we didn't mind because he's such a good speaker. (I swear it was rehearsed.) Anywho, during the TRR, we ran the contraption to make bubbles, and in the four or five times through, it didn't blow bubbles until the last cycle! Our machine has to "warm up" for the best efficiency.

Enough of that, I'll speak of the fun things we've done. We've been to Kemah boardwalk, the beach at Galveston, and the Six Flags Waterpark. We went to a massive mall, and we've seen two movies, Talladega Nights and X-men 3. (Some people saw RV instead of X-Men.) Yeah, Talladega Nights was hilarious and X-Men was awesome. Kemah boardwalk was alright, and there was this really awesome guy doing DDR in the arcade. He got an 800 step combo and lost his balance, pulled off a 300 hit combo and ended at 60. But that initial 800 step combo was mindboggling. He was pulling off crazy syncopated rhythms, and triplet beats, so you know that he's definitely played the level a few times already. And the beach at Galveston was alright, but it was really dirty with litter. And yeah, the mall was huge; it had 3 Armani stores, and a Versace store. Well, I guess we will let you all get to sleep since a lot of you have school tomorrow. Ha! Goodnight everyone!


Doing the Hokey Pokey (That's what it's all about!!)

If there's one thing we've learned this week.... DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS! A little bit of sun along with water and work don't make a good combination. Since we last updated, we have had an AWESOME time using our free time in Houston. Being the 4th largest city in the nation, there has been PLENTY to keep us busy. This weekend, we enjoyed such activities as visiting the Galleria mall along with the famous Cheesecake factory which was a REAL treat!!! We also saw the Galveston Beach on Sunday, and it was very dissapointing to see the beach as trashy as it was. After the beach, we came back to the hotel and swam in the CLEAN pool... which was a complete 180 degree turn from that morning. Having this free time was great after working all day on Thursday and Friday. Yesterday we also had free time after the TRR session, in which the NASA staff evaluated our experiment. Needless to say we passed! We are currently waiting for our turn to fly in the C-9 aircraft, and we will be loading our apparatus on the plane tomorrow afternoon. After TRR, we watched a movie at the dollar theater and ate at BJ's, a local pizza place. We went to Six Flag's Splashtown during the day today and ate at Dos Mas, a local mexican restaurant(reminded us of Monterrey's). Our plans for the rest of the week include testing our experiment on the C-9, visiting more local attractions, and enjoying our last few days of summer in lovely Houston.
It took us until the last day or so to really be ready to come home. 10 days is a really long time. So we are definitely looking forward to boarding the plane to leave, although we have really enjoyed ourselves. All the work from over the summer was definently worth it to be able to have an experience like this. This is definitely a trip we will never forget, and we are grateful to have been chosen to participate!! School on Monday seems so far away, but it will come soon enough. Hopefully we will have ample time to catch-up! I guess that's all we have for now. See you when we get back.

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As you can see below, we had a weekend of fun activities, but today we were back to work. It was a big day for our team. Now that the official flight week has arrived, every day begins with a morning meeting at 7:30. There the teams learn about any updates and changes in the schedule. Following today’s meeting was the test readiness review. We had a couple of hours to prepare, and then a team of NASA scientists and safety personnel came around to inspect our apparatus. The NASA personnel will make recommendations to improve the quality or safety of our experiment before we are officially cleared to fly. The review seemed to go well, so we are optimistic that everything will go ahead as planned.



The ground crew had the afternoon free while the flight team underwent the remainder of the physiological training—namely the chamber.


The four flyers arrived early at the Sonny Carter Training Facility, also known as the NBL or Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, to be fitted for our very fashionable helmets and oxygen masks. After some basic training in how to operate our equipment, we moved on to the chamber to experience the effects of hypoxia, which is the lack of oxygen. During the first half hour of our chamber time, we simply sat and breathed 100% pure oxygen to remove nitrogen gas from our bloodstream. This precaution prevents decompression sickness, better known as the bends. That was the easy part.

After our time on oxygen was finished, the air was gradually pumped out of the chamber so that we could experience atmospheric conditions similar to those at high altitudes. When we reached a barometric pressure equivalent to 25 000 feet, half of us were instructed to remove our oxygen masks while the other half observed. After five minutes off of the oxygen, the groups changed roles. While our oxygen masks were off, we worked math problems and answered simple questions so that we could monitor our cognitive functioning. Also, we recorded the effects of hypoxia every minute. During Friday’s briefing we had learned what to expect, so Mrs. Weems and I were on alert for symptoms such as mental confusion, disorientation and lack of coordination. (Those who know us might think that we spend most of our time in a state of hypoxia!!) Actually, we were a little disappointed. Both of us were able to work our math problems and answer the questions correctly. Our handwriting didn’t seem to deteriorate as we had been told it might, and neither of us did anything too goofy. The only effects I noticed were the appearance of bright points of light and feeling a little “air-hungry.” I was proud of myself for lasting through the full five minutes without needing to go back on the oxygen mask. After going back on oxygen, however, I noticed that the colors in the room suddenly became much brighter. Apparently, I had gradually lost some of my color vision without realizing it. Overall, though, that part of the chamber was pretty easy, too.

For me, coming down was the hard part. The NASA physiological training staff had warned us about the problems that pressure changes could cause in the gastrointestinal tract, sinuses, teeth and ears. Ears turned out to be a little problem for me. As they re-pressurized the chamber, the operator had to stop the descent a couple of times because I had problems equalizing the pressure inside and outside my right ear. The crew members inside the chamber with our team worked with me until we were finally back to normal pressure. The NASA staff is very helpful and thorough, so they immediately took me in to see the doctor. He gave me some medications to take for the next few days, and he says that I should be fine to fly on Friday.

Our day at the NBL ended with a tour of the “Texas-sized swimming pool” where the astronauts train to do the tasks they need to perform during space walks. I’ll share more about that later along with some photographs. We are also hoping for some more student entries very soon.

In the meantime, thanks to all who are reading our blog. We are having a great time with this. Some people have told us that they have made comments, but we still aren’t seeing them so please e-mail us at zerogzoomers@gcschools.net or follow the link on the GHS homepage. We love hearing from you, and we will respond!!

Goodbye for tonight!

On Saturday, we went to the musuem district in downtown Houston and visited a children's museum that is in the same group of museums as the Hands-On Museum. Then we went to the Galleria. The Galleria has numerous stores and an ice skating rink. We ate cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory and it was delicious.



On Sunday, we thought we would spend the day at the beach. However, we soon learned that the beaches here are not what we are use too. On Sunday night, we visted the Kemah Boardwalk on Galveston Bay. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack, enjoyed shopping and the laser light show.

Hello again!

Since we don’t have project news to report during the weekend, I thought this would be a good time to say thank you to the many people who have had a part in making this a successful project.

First of all, the Greenville City Schools Central Office Team and Greeneville High School have encouraged and provided for us through every phase of our work. Unfortunately, our scheduling has been a little erratic and plans have been made only to be changed again and again. Even when the project grew beyond the scope we anticipated and when we learned that our flight week corresponded squarely with the start of the school year, our administrators supported this trip. Through it all, everyone at the Central Office and the high school has worked with us to make things as easy as possible, and we really appreciate everything they have done.

We also owe a huge thanks to Dr. Paul Sims and Bill Hemphill, professors of engineering at East Tennessee State, and Sam Shafer and Sheldon Davis, engineering student and alumnus, respectively. Not only have they spent long hours on the construction, but they also have worked with us and taught us so much about programming, design and engineering. I know I speak for Mrs. Weems when I say that working with them this summer has been our privilege. We simply would not have an experiment here if not for these gentlemen.

Mrs. Janet Ricker at Greeneville High School has also played a huge role is getting us here safely and successfully. While Mrs. Weems and I were scrambling to get the final construction work done on the apparatus, Janet was back in Greeneville making sure we had all of the insurance forms and paperwork we needed, making contact with NASA to get questions answered, finding activities that we could use with our classes while we are gone, having team shirts embroidered, putting together goody bags for us and the kids, being our number one cheerleader and doing about ten-thousand other things just to make our job easier. We’ve always known what an energetic and caring person Janet is, but she keeps finding new ways to prove that to us. We love you, Janet!!!

If you are enjoying keeping up with our team on this blog, join us in thanking Mrs. Beverly Miller, Larry and Greg. Before we left, they sat with us to teach us some new technology tricks and made sure that we have everything we need to stay connected while we are here in Houston.

Several community sponsors made donations to help with travel and equipment costs. Again, we could not have made this trip without their assistance. The Scott Niswonger Foundation provided a generous grant to help cover our travel and outreach expenses. Greeneville Federal Bank and Heritage Community Bank donated money for embroidered polo and t-shirts for the team. We also received financial support from Angus-Palm, Dr. David Dykes, East Tennessee Manufacturing Services, Parkway Contractors, Wal-Mart and W & W Engineering. Thank you, sponsors, for your generosity.

You will soon be seeing some pictures in which we are wearing our matching custom-embroidered shirts. As always, Karen Biddle at GHS has done a wonderful job to make our team look sharp. Incidentally, so far we are the only group that has team shirts. Pretty cool!

Finally, but certainly not least, thank you to our families and loved ones for supporting us through a stressful summer. We miss you and look forward to seeing you next weekend. Also, thank you to the parents who have shared their teenagers with us all summer and who have allowed us to take them away from home for the better part of eleven days. We certainly wouldn’t have been able to do this without all of you!

Also, thanks to everyone who has checked in with our blog and sent e-mails. If you have sent comments that didn’t come up on the site, please send us an e-mail. We love hearing from you!

On Friday the flight crew spent most of the day at Aerospace Physiology Training at Johnson Space Center. The ground crew worked at Ellington Field. The ground crew worked out some programming gletches with the assistance of an electrical engineer from NASA. The students also got to go on some really cool tours. Including up into the C-9 in which the our exiperiment will fly in zero g.

Very short video of the inside of the C-9!

Hello again from Houston!!

We have had another busy day of activities as we prepare for our zero-gravity experience. The students have been making the last adjustments on the apparatus before our test readiness review (the TRR—NASA & its acronyms!!!) on Monday. The TRR is when the NASA mission directors examine the apparatus and question us about our experiment to decide if it is flight-worthy. Everything is in good shape, so we should be ready for their toughest questions. These students have been involved in every phase of this experiment, so we are confident that they can handle this final challenge before the flight.

Today, the kids and April from Hands-On had a special tour of our C-9 and some of the other NASA airplanes. Understandably, the NASA officials in charge of this mission have been pretty impressed by our students and have been giving them some special treatment. You can read and see more about their tour a little later.

As the ground crew tests the apparatus, their faces say it all.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Weems and I didn’t get to spend much of our day with the kids. We were out bright and early this morning for our physiological training which turned out to be listening to different lecturers from NASA tell us what to expect, what to do and, most importantly, what not to do as we experience the chamber and our zero-gravity flight. The more we learn, the more I’m looking forward to flying and the more I’m dreading the chamber!!

Our chamber experience will be on Monday afternoon. The NASA physiologists prepared us very well for the experience by describing in detail what will be happening. The chamber replicates the atmospheric conditions that flyers would experience in case of depressurization at an altitude of 25 000 feet. At this level, atmospheric pressure is approximately one-third of the normal pressure at sea level, and the time of useful consciousness (TUC—another NASA acronym) is only about three to five minutes. Since each individual manifests symptoms of hypoxia or oxygen deprivation in a somewhat unique way, the goal of the chamber session is to allow flyers to experience the effects of a lack of oxygen in a controlled environment so that they can capably react in the event of an actual depressurization of the aircraft. Our chamber experience will be video taped so that we can observe ourselves when we are oxygen-deprived. According to our instructors today, the effects of hypoxia rather closely resemble the effects of alcohol, so the video of Mrs. Weems and I gradually taking leave of our senses promises to be pretty entertaining. We also learned about proper diet to counteract some other physical effects due to the changes in pressure. Suffice it to say that I have a whole new lesson plan in mind for teaching the gas laws, particularly the relationship between decreased pressure and expanding volume, to my students this fall.

We have the weekend free, so we plan to enjoy the city while we are here. Tomorrow we will be visiting the Children’s Museum of Houston, a member of the network that includes Hands-On Museum. The afternoon plans include some power-shopping at the Galleria. On Sunday we are planning some beach time and a visit to Kemah Boardwalk in Galveston.

We'll be updating soon, so keep checking back with us!!

Hello there! Houston is HOT!! It broke 100 today. Needless to say, we are all having a "smokin'" good time. In all seriousness, it has been great so far. Although we have put in a lot of time and hard work, it has all been worth it now that we are finally here!! The past few days have been all set up days, and we finally have our machine working correctly after hitting a few bumps along the way. Even though the students are unable to fly in the C-9 "vomit comet", a few of the NASA workers have taken us on memorable adventures around Ellington Field. It's pretty cool to be on a first-name basis with people that work at NASA. Last night we were able to eat dinner with a few of the Boeing representatives, NASA workers, and other co-op students who challenged us with questions about our experiment and questions about our future AFTER high school....the toughest questions of the night!! We have really questioned our intentions in science and math after being here for 2 days. It has certainly put us on the spot at times. However, we have handeled the experiment pretty well and are ..mostly.. equipped to answer any questions the NASA workers may throw at us!! We are here with big named colleges like Purdue, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Miami, etc., and we have to prove that we are just as knowledgeable about our project as they are about their's. But everything is not all work! We have plenty of opportunities for free-time throughout the week including Six Flags waterpark, The Galleria mall, the movies, Galveston beach, and other local attractions. We've worked hard these past few day and are looking forward to a little down time in the next two days. Well we are off to bed!!! We'll be in touch later on in the week. We need to be ready to work with Don, Jim, Mat, John, and the other NASA guys. Goodnight!

Hello from Houston!!

We have just come back to our hotel room after a long first day of learning more about what we will experience this week. We arrived at Ellington field and were greeted by the roar of a fighter plane taking off down the runway that is just in front of the hangar where we will be working this week. We could hear the planes as we worked throughout the day, but we quickly learned that if you looked for them after you heard them, it was too late. Ellington Field is no longer the active Air Force Base that it once was, but it still houses the Coast Guard, parts of the NASA complex and some military activities.

Our morning started with an orientation and a safety overview. We are one of ten teams that will be flying this week, and we are in good company. Among the groups are teams from the University of Miami, Johns Hopkins and MIT. We were really excited to see a group from U.T., thinking there were some fellow Vols here, but it turns out they are from the OTHER U.T.--the longhorn type. After being introduced to the procedures and protocol that we are to follow, we unpacked the apparatus and got to work. As the morning progressed, we also had a chance to see the other teams' projects. Even though most of the groups are college teams, our experiment is as impressive as any of theirs. Thanks to Dr. Paul Sims and Bill Hemphill at East Tennessee State, we have one of the best-engineered projects in the hangar.

As they have been doing all summer, our students are doing a tremendous job here in Houston. We spent the morning putting on some final touches and by the afternoon we were running the apparatus to make sure it had weathered the trip to Houston without any loosening any of the wiring--so far, so good. Hilary, Lindsay, and Josh worked on the physical container, and Kelvin and Cameron fine-tuned the computer program so that we can do a full test tomorrow. We are truly blessed to have such great kids to work with. They are doing a great job, and they make this experience much more fun for us.

This afternoon we had some meetings that specifically addressed what will happen as Mrs. Weems and I undergo physiological training. Apparently, oxygen deprivation is part of the process...hmmmm. While we were a little distressed about the whole breathing thing--or lack of it--we were glad to hear that the flight teams made it through last week's flights with only three people getting sick. According the the NASA representative, the "vomit comet" doesn't quite deserve its nasty reputation.

Tonight, we attended a dinner sponsored by Boeing and met some of their representatives. We had time this evening to meet and talk with other teams and NASA officials. Our experience has been great so far, and we are looking forward to the rest of our days here, especially as our schedule is coming into focus. We are scheduled to do the ominous-sounding "chamber" on Monday. (That is the oxygen-deprivation portion of the program.) Our team flight days are Thursday and Friday, and Mrs. Weems and I are scheduled to go up on Friday. We will be in touch as the week progresses, and we hope to have some pictures posted soon, so keep checking back at this site.

This is the C-9 aircraft that will fly us in zero-g next week.