NASA 'Vomit Comet' takes trio to new heights, depths

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau

Greg Osterman flew like Superman. Teri Schmidt screamed. Nobody escaped the effects of NASA's "Vomit Comet."

Windward Community College students Osterman, Schmidt and Kauwila Hanchett found themselves among engineering students last month in the NASA 2001 Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, in which they carried out scientific experiments in the absence of gravity at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The team was the first from Hawai'i to participate in the student program since it began four years ago, and was one of only two community colleges invited to send students.

Schmidt, 19, said she learned about the program from her stepmother, who works at NASA.

Although she is an elementary education major, Schmidt said she saw the program as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to know what only pilots and astronauts experience.

Before the flight, Schmidt said she thought being weightless would be like swimming. It wasn't. It's like driving over a bump in the road where your stomach gets queasy. And the queasiness is constant, she said.

"I was very scared and I started screaming," she said. "I think I was the only one. Everyone's eyes got big and they said, 'Oh, my gosh, what's happening?' But you get used to it."

Donning National Aeronautics and Space Administration flight suits for two- to three-hour flights over the Gulf of Mexico, the students flew in an aircraft similar to a 707 jet that took them on 30 roller-coaster-like steep climbs and descents.

Each gave the students and their experiments 25 to 30 seconds of zero-gravity as they went "over the top," said Donn Sickorez, Johnson education coordinator for the program. In two of the maneuvers, students also experienced lunar gravity and Mars' gravity.

•	For more information For more information about the NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities, write Texas Space Grant Consortium, 3925 W. Braker Lane, Suite 200, Austin, TX 78759. For information about requirements and deadlines for subsequent programs visit www.tsgc.utexas.edu/floatn.

While able to do back flips and fly like Superman in weightlessness, Osterman said he felt sick at the bottom of the fall, but came out of it OK. Others weren't so lucky, he said.

The project stretched his abilities, Osterman said. His team had to devise six experiments that could be conducted on the plane under weightless conditions.

The work was separate from school activities, although they received help from Windward Community College professor Joe Ciotti.

"I gained confidence that I could do that," Osterman said. "Sometimes I've gotten ideas for an invention but I've never pursued them. Now I feel more likely to pursue some."

Each experiment had to meet strict NASA requirements, and equipment had to be able to withstand extreme gravitational forces. Without the benefit of an engineer to help them, he said, they tended to make their equipment stronger than necessary, especially the container that contained fluids.

"If water got out it would float around in the cabin and it could damage someone else's experiment," Osterman said. The experiments were simple, documenting the effects of weightlessness on such things as magnets and fluids.

The team videotaped everything to produce a special show for schoolchildren, grades 4-12, that will air at the community college's new Hokulani Planetarium.

"ZeroGeeWhiz" should debut this fall, said Ciotti, who accompanied the students to Houston but didn't get to participate in the plane ride.

"It was a great honor to have Windward chosen for participation," Ciotti said. "We're hoping to encourage more students to pursue science education and careers."

The Windward students received support from the Hawai'i Space Grant Consortium and Windward Community College.