Both UNL flight teams pose in their flight suits in front of the Zero G 727.

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past couple weeks. It may be time for me to look for a laptop computer. Regardless, we made it back safely from our trip to Houston. The whole week was unforgettable and our two flights were successful for the most part. I'd like to take you through the week now that I have time to reflect on all of it. I'll post a few pictures, but stay tuned because I will be posting all of my photos from the week online as soon as I can get them organized. Some of the photos in this post were taken by NASA journalists and can be found along with multiple other pictures from the flight week at http://zerog.jsc.nasa.gov/studentmain.html. Look under 2009 Systems Engineering and 2009 College Campaign.

Day 1 - Thursday, March 26

After being in a van all day Wednesday, we were more than ready to arrive at Ellington Field, even at 7:30 in the morning. To get to Houston, we had left Wednesday morning from Lincoln at 4:00 and drove with very few stops until we arrived at our hotel in Houston around 6:30 that evening. Needless to say, most were pretty wiped, and it was a little difficult to get up Thursday morning, despite our excitement.

Thursday at the base was a set up day for everyone. Thankfully, since our equipment rode with us to Houston, we had relatively little to do. All of the electronic equipment was secure on the frame, and we only had to mount one of our hopper assemblies. We spent the rest of our day concerning ourselves with adding padding to any sharp corners.

Nick, Professor Gogos, Jon, and Evan look over the equipment and make sure everything is working properly. We also formed a game plan for the flight by choosing vibration frequencies and amplitudes to try.

Here the same group looks over the data recorded for one of our vibrations. All of this data was taken from an accelerometer attached to one end of the hopper. The signal was then processed and saved to a USB Flash Drive by an Oscilloscope. This way, the data could be analyzed back on the ground with a computer.

Nick, Elena, Evan, and Jon continue with our equipment set up.

We were given a space to work in inside hangar 990 where NASA's "Weightless Wonder" C-9 is housed. It was a surreal experience, as was most of the week, to be able to work next to this research aircraft. NASA mechanics were almost constantly tending to the aircraft, which was interesting to watch as well.

The whole team with our equipment. From left to right, Elena Hoff, Nick Kleinschmit, Jon Hein, Evan Hilgemann, Professor George Gogos, and Brett Schlueter. Chuck Bell could not make the trip to Houston with the team.

Near the end of the day, we were placed on lightning hold due to thunderstorms which moved through most of the day Thursday. Since we were stuck in the hangar, we took the time to learn more about the second aircraft housed inside hangar 990.

The WB-57F Long Wing is used for high altitude research, typically above 50,000 ft. The airframe is almost constantly changing and can accommodate any number of research configurations. It also has the capability to take pictures from the air of the space shuttle during launch via the swiveling camera attached to the nose.

The group learning about the WB-57F.

Day 2 - Friday, March 27

Day 2 consisted of the flight team's physiological training in preparation for the flights the following week. Classes at Johnson Space Center (JSC) filled the morning, covering topics from hypoxia (oxygen deprivation) to motion sickness. Several tips helped to inform us about how to deal with such problems, and were instrumental in preparing us for successful flights.

The afternoon was much more interesting, however. We traveled from JSC to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) after lunch. Upon our arrival, we were given a tour of the facility which is dedicated to astronaut training. The facility boasts a 6.2 million gallon pool which has a depth of 40 ft and contains life size mock ups of the International Space Station (ISS) and the shuttle's cargo bay. Astronauts are placed in the pool wearing full pressurized space suits which are weighted to give them neutral buoyancy at whatever depth they are to be working at. This gives them some sense of the weightless conditions they will experience during Extra Vehicular Activities (EVA's - or space walks). For every hour of planned EVA time, astronauts will spend approximately 6.5 hours training in the pool at NBL. During their training runs, they are fed oxygen via an umbilical cord and are assisted by three divers. One diver handles all of the astronaut's tools during the training. While the astronaut is neutrally buoyant in the water, their tools are not. Therefore, someone must hold them at all times to ensure they don't sink to the bottom of the pool.

The training pool at NBL. The water takes on the blue color not from additives, but from the sheer depth of the water. Water in the pool is kept at a constant 80 degrees, yet still seems cold for the divers during the training exercises. One of the interesting things about this facility is that all the equipment is set in the pool via a large crane located on rails near the ceiling. Russia's similar water training facility, however, has a hydraulic floor which can be raised out of the water enabling fork lifts to drive onto the platform and move equipment around.

After our tour, it was time for our hypobaric chamber ride. Before our ride, we were fitted with military style oxygen masks and caps.

Professor Gogos looking good in his gear. Each of us was also fitted with an oxygen mask prior to the chamber ride.

Here am I getting fitted with my equipment. Cue the Top Gun sound track in your head if it helps. Photo from NASA JSC.

Once we all had our gear, and had emptied our pockets of all valuables, it was time for our hypobaric chamber ride. A hypobaric chamber is a small steel room which can be completely sealed from the outside with the doors closed and locked. Inside, there are places for 12 people to sit with oxygen controls for each person. Three test directors stay in the chamber with the group during the flight, and several others run the controls from the outside.

The test began by letting everyone breathe pure oxygen for 30 minutes to remove the Nitrogen from our bodies. Nitrogen causes the bends, a form of depressurization sickness. When the body is taken back down to higher pressures, the Nitrogen may not go back into solution in the body, and instead may form in bubbles around the joints. By reducing the amount of Nitrogen in the body, this can be avoided.

During this time, we were also given a demonstration of pressurized breathing with the oxygen equipment. To aid pilots operating at high altitudes, the oxygen can be given in pressurized form. It was incredibly awkward to merely open my mouth and with no other effort have my lungs filled with air. Breathing out was even worse, as I had to really work to force the air back out of my lungs against the pressure inside my oxygen mask. While the demonstration was interesting, I personally did not like it.

After our 30 minutes of pure oxygen breathing, it was time to "take us up" in the chamber. By using a large vacuum at the top of the chamber, the test operators can suck the air out of the room and simulate the air conditions at different altitudes. For our test, we quickly climbed at 5,000 ft/min to FL250 or Flight Level 25,000 ft. As we rose past 8,000 ft, a fog formed inside the chamber, which was really cool to see. It was as if we were climbing through the clouds in an aircraft, yet never moved from inside the building.

Once we leveled off at 25,000 ft, half of the group was instructed to remove their oxygen masks and complete simple tasks on a worksheet. Meanwhile, the other half of the group observed. The point of the exercise was to make sure you could distinguish your signs of hypoxia. As I watched the other half of the group breathing the very low pressure air, it was amazing how differently everyone reacted. Some started laughing, and obviously enjoyed the feeling, while others seemed very uncomfortable and breathed heavily. After 5 minutes, they all were placed back on oxygen and it was my turn to get hypoxia.

I removed my mask and was initially startled by the feeling. There really seemed to be no air inside the room. The pressure was also very low, so breathing what was there was extremely easy. I never noticed myself attempting to breathe faster or deeper, but I did notice other symptoms. As I worked through the worksheet, I could feel myself getting dumber and more lethargic. Simple math problems were a struggle, and signing my name became more and more sloppy. My reaction to all of this was a sense of euphoria. I thought it was hilarious, and most saw a huge smile on my face during those 5 minutes. The time also seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, we had to put our masks back on. After only a few quick breaths of pure oxygen, I began to feel normal again.

This must have been the only time during my test where I wasn't smiling or laughing. I was probably looking at Jack who asked my to give him a wink after a couple minutes without oxygen. He said I winked about five or six times, with both eyes. Photo from NASA JSC.

Day 3 - Saturday, March 28

The group split up a little bit on our first day off. A couple stayed at the hotel to try to stay ahead of their homework, while another group went to explore downtown Houston. I, however, found that the NHRA Spring Nationals Drag Race was in Houston that weekend. It being one of my biggest interests, I couldn't resist. The weather that day was too cold for the beach anyway, so it worked out. For those of you who have never experienced a Top Fuel or Funny Car drag race, I highly recommend it. Even if you don't like cars, the engineering involved in getting a 2,500 pound car from a standing start to 310 mph+ in 1,000 ft and less than 4 seconds is absolutely amazing.

That night, we all met up at Niko Niko's, a Greek restaurant which was highly recommended by the NASA team. The food was really good, and I'm not really a big fan of Greek food. The rest of the time was spent telling stories about our day.

Day 4 - Sunday, March 29

Most of the group took the vans to the beach in Galveston since the weather was much nicer than on Saturday. While the water wasn't the clearest, it was nice to sit in the sand and get some sun after the long winter. Between Saturday and Sunday, I developed a nice little sunburn. Even so, it was worth it to finally be outside for awhile.

Day 5 - Monday, March 30

Monday was our Test Readiness Review (TRR). This consisted of a panel of about 15-20 engineers who reviewed our equipment to determine if it was safe for flight. It was a little nerve racking to stand in front of the panel and explain your experiment and your reasoning for how it was constructed. Fortunately, our equipment must have seemed to be relatively harmless as we only fielded a few quick questions.

I explain the components of our experiment while the rest of the team looks on. Photo from NASA JSC.

Once we passed our TRR, our equipment was sent out to the aircraft for loading. For our program, NASA contracted a Boeing 727 owned by the Zero G company.

Here, the team carries our equipment to a forklift to be sent to the aircraft for loading.

Evan stands in the cabin of the Zero G 727 waiting to have our equipment mounted to the aircraft floor. Most of the cabin of the aircraft was open and padded like this to protect both the experiments and people on board.

Jon and Nick practice their techniques for handling motion sickness after our equipment was bolted to the aircraft. After we had everything in place and hooked up, we tested the equipment and found that our hopper door had become stuck somehow. Since we were unable to fix it on the aircraft, we quickly switched out the hopper for our second one. Originally, we had planned on flying the smaller hopper opening first, but the large opening hopper was working much better at the time. The guys joked afterward that we had lived up to our team name by how FAST we changed out the hoppers. We finished just as they started kicking everyone off the plane for the day.

Day 6 - Tuesday, March 31 (FLIGHT DAY 1)

Tuesday was my chance to experience lunar and zero gravity. I woke up early, donned my fancy green flight suit, and headed off to Ellington. I can't really describe how excited/nervous I was. I wasn't so much worried for myself, but I was hoping the experiments would go well. After our early morning briefing, we received our anti-motion sickness meds and prepared ourselves for the flight.

Evan, myself, and Professor Gogos ready ourselves for the flight. The three of us flew the first flight day, and Jon and Nick flew the second day. The looks on our faces pretty much sum up our excitement. My pockets were pretty much all filled on my flight suit at the time. One was dedicated to some vomit bags which thankfully were never needed.

I give a quick wave as we board the aircraft. The next hour and a half would contain one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

After a short safety check, we taxied to our runway and took off. After a few minutes, we were cleared to leave our seats in the back of the plane and move forward to our equipment. We had a few minutes to set up our video camera, and check all of our electrical equipment. After about 15 minutes, we had reached our airspace over the Gulf of Mexico. NASA uses military airspace to conduct its reduced gravity research as the area is cleared of all aircraft below 40,000 ft. That way, no other aircraft traffic could interfere with our maneuvers.

Before our first parabola, we were instructed to either lie flat on the floor of the aircraft, or sit still against a wall. This would prepare us for the 2G pull up. During the first part of the maneuver, the pilot pitches the nose of the airplane up approximately 45 degrees relating to the horizon and accelerates. Inside the plane, this felt like I was in the palm of a very large hand being pushed upward. My arms and legs dug into the padded floor, and I could feel the skin on my face being pulled downward. Most if not all of the G forces inside the plane were directly perpendicular to the floor. I felt no movement forwards or backwards inside the plane. The 2G pull up lasted about 30 seconds.

After the pull up, the pilot slowly noses the plane over the top of the parabola, and shoots for the perfect arc to create the desired G forces inside the airplane. He throttles back the engines and basically puts the aircraft into a controlled free fall. Everyone inside falls at the same rate, but feels no wind effects and has no knowledge of the aircraft's orientation in the sky. That first parabola in lunar gravity was incredible. I took the crew's advice, and just relaxed for the first one. As the G forces fell inside the airplane, the feeling of being pinned to the floor quickly ended and I felt myself involuntarily sit up off the floor. It felt as if I had thousands of strings attached to myself pulling me upward from the floor. Since it was lunar gravity (roughly 1/6 that of earth's gravity), I was not completely pulled up off the floor.

Professor Gogos and I get our first taste of lunar gravity. Again, the look on my face says it all. The feeling was incredible, and I can only try to fully describe it in words. Photo by NASA JSC.

The only thing I can even begin to try to relate it to is the feeling you get going over a small hill on a country road at a fast speed. Your stomach kind of flips a little, but mainly you feel yourself being pushed up out of your seat. It was a little bit like that, only the feeling lasted much, much longer, approximately 20 seconds. When we reached the point where the pilots needed to pull the plane back out of its dive, the crew on board shouted "coming out," and I lay back flat on the floor for another 2G pull out. Then, we went right back into another parabola.

During our experiment tests, I slowly rolled up onto my knees, which put me in perfect position to run the electrical equipment for our tests. To be honest, it was really difficult to work in that environment, having been subjected to it for the first time. My mind kept trying to make sense of the feeling while I tried to focus on running our experiments. My arms felt lighter, and I almost felt myself trying to pull them down to work the buttons and switches on the equipment.

Evan, Professor Gogos, and I run our experiments during one of the parabolas. It helped to have a set list of commands to follow for running a test, but everything happened so fast that it really was difficult to run the experiment. Photo by NASA JSC.

Flight didn't go by without a few problems. First, our hopper door began to stick as materials began to get caught inside the slots in the hopper sides. We were still able to make decent data runs, however, until we lost power. For some reason, the GFI in the aircraft's power supply started to trip. By the time we got the problem fixed, we had lost 5 data runs. We were still hopeful that we had collected enough good data.

The craziest thing about the experiment was watching how slowly the material fell through the hopper. It was surreal and seemed as if I was watching the whole thing in slow motion. The NU-LHT simulant really did not flow at all, and never completely made it through the hopper during one parabola. We had to use part of the 2G pull out to get the material down to the other side. Our video camera was left recording during the entire flight.

Once we were satisfied with our data runs, we took the last few parabolas to have some fun. I stood up for a couple of them and even tried the sort of skipping motion most of the astronauts on the moon used. Again, the whole thing was surreal and I couldn't believe how little effort it took to send myself up off the floor.

My most vivid memory from the flight came when I tossed a couple magnets up in 1/6 G. I had originally planned on making them spin together or push them apart my placing their similar poles together. During the flight, however, I never really even thought of trying either test. I merely tossed them up toward my eye level. I barely pushed them upward and they jumped up off my hand and slowly rose towards eye level. At the top of their flight, they seemed to hang in the air for a moment, wobbling back in forth in front of my face. Then, they sluggishly fell back to my awaiting hands. It was in slow motion, and it was mind boggling. It wouldn't have mattered what I had tossed up; the magnets are just what I had at the time. I must have looked like a little kid, discovering how to toss and catch a ball for the first time.

After our lunar parabolas, we were able to experience a Mars gravity parabola (1/3 of earth's gravity). During this parabola, Professor Gogos decided to do his push ups for his doctor to see. After he broke his wrist last fall, his doctor told him he could no longer do pushups, so Professor Gogos had to prove him wrong. I was more than happy to record the video for him, and I will try to post it later.

Professor Gogos doing some pushups in 1/3 G Evan and I take videos and pictures. Photo from NASA JSC.

Next came the zero G parabolas. We were allowed to experience three of them for fun. The 2 G pull up felt the same, and again I took the crew's advice and stayed relaxed as we neared the top of the maneuver. As I held on to our experiment's frame, I felt myself being lifted up off the floor. It was incredible. I slowly rolled up out and over our equipment, and I found myself looking down on it. I grabbed one of the ropes running along the length of the cabin to steady myself and looked toward the front of the airplane. I can still see all the random arms and legs, pointing every direction, and moving at the same time. Everyone hung in space as if they were suspended from the ceiling of the plane. Shouts and yells of excitement and happiness involuntarily came out of me. I couldn't help myself. I seem to remember repeating to myself, "wow, oh WOW" and laughing.

I give a quick thumbs up to the camera as Evan holds on for life in zero G. I was so thankful to be able to experience reduced gravity, and was even more thankful to have had no motion sickness during the entire flight. Photo by NASA JSC.

Before I knew it, and certainly before I was ready, our parabolas were completed. After the last 2 G pull out, a spontaneous applause erupted in the cabin as the students and faculty showed their appreciation to the flight crew. We made our way back to our seats and after a few minutes were back on the ground at Ellington. The total flight took approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. To me, it seemed like a matter of seconds. I was told later, by the NASA sponsor for the other UNL team that I couldn't stop talking once we were back in our seats at the back of the airplane. I certainly can't deny this claim, but I'm not sure I could have stopped myself if I had tried.

Back on the ground, we were greeted by the rest of our team members before having a quick post flight debrief.

Evan, Brett, and Professor Gogos proudly walk back from the aircraft after their flight. I'm pretty sure I'm still smiling about the whole experience, even almost a week later.

I had to add this picture, because it was one of my favorites. Here I am with Andrew Kelley and Jack Mondry from the other UNL team. We all look pretty proud and happy about what we had just done. I have to thank Jon for all the great photos including this one that he took during my flight day.

The entire group from my flight day. Since no one on our flight got sick, students that is, we will have our picture posted on a special page by NASA. We were considered a "no kill" flight. Again, we were all very proud.

In the afternoon, we were able to get back on the aircraft to switch out our hoppers again. While on the plane, I lay back down next to our equipment and showed Jon and Nick where I had been during the 2 G pullout. As I lay there, I could feel myself being pulled up off the floor, as if I was reliving one of the parabolas. I again had the same feeling that night as I was lying on the bed at the hotel.

We celebrated that night by eating a big steak dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse on the Kemah Boardwalk.

Day 7 - Wednesday, April 1 (FLIGHT DAY 2, April fools)

Wednesday was scheduled as our second flight day, and Jon and Nick were ready to go. They attended their meetings, received their meds, and took off on schedule. On the ground in Houston it was a beautiful day, so no one expected any problems. However, less than an hour later, someone informed us that the plane was back already.

Apparently, everyone inside the plane had been lying on the floor, waiting for the first 2 G pull up, and it just never came. We were given two explanations. One was that there was too much turbulence, and the other was that they did not have a clear view of the horizon. Since the maneuvers are manually done by the pilots, NASA requires that the horizon be visible during the flight for safety purposes.

The guys getting ready for their flight.

Nick was excited, as always.

And they're off...

...and they're back. Everyone was pretty disappointed. The crew told us we might fly in the afternoon, but as it turned out, the flight was delayed until Thursday morning. The weather played a pretty good April fools joke on everyone that day.

The meds pretty much knocked out the fliers that afternoon, so we went back to the hotel for a while to let everyone rest. Then, since we had the afternoon free, we decided to see Rocket Park at JSC.

Here I am standing in front of the Saturn V rocket. The rocket has been restored to look as it would standing on a launch pad in the late sixties or early seventies. This of course was the rocket used during the Apollo moon missions, and it was really impressive to see. The rocket stretches 363 ft end to end.

Some UNL team members give and idea of the scale of the rocket as they observe just one example of the incredible engineering involved in making the Saturn V work. This picture is of the last stage of the rocket, near the smaller end.

Here I am this time standing next to the five huge main engines on the Saturn V. Each one weighs 15,650 pounds and produces 1.5 million pounds of thrust. They only burned for 2.5 minutes, but in that time pushed the Saturn V to an altitude of 41 miles and a speed of 6,000 mph. I can't image what they must have sounded like during launch.

Also outside the Saturn V building where two more rockets. One dated back to the Mercury missions, and the second was used as a test platform for the Apollo missions. The tour was great, but everyone was still looking forward to a successful flight day on Thursday.

Day 8 - Thursday, April 2 (FLIGHT DAY 2, take 2)

It was a welcome sight to see the guys boarding the aircraft in the morning. We had been delayed for about an hour again due to thunderstorms in the area, but in the end it was determined the conditions were safe for flight.

For the second flight day, we were assisted by Kyle Knori from Boise State. Our PI from NASA, Dr. Ed Ethridge, could not make the trip to Houston to fly with us. Fortunately, it worked out that Kyle was listed as an alternate flier for Boise State. He was more than willing to fly with our team, and we were thankful he was able to learn about our equipment in the short time we had before the flights.

Our second day fliers with our equipment, Jon Hein, Kyle Knori, and Nick Kleinschmit. Photo by NASA JSC.

Kyle and Nick conducting experiments during their flight. Photo by NASA JSC.

Even with the improved conditions compared to Wednesday's attempt, Thursday's flight still had some problems. They again encountered turbulence during the flight, and consequently deleted eight parabolas from the flight plan. So instead of flying 32 parabolas, the second flight only got 24.

Nick, Jon, and Chris from "PowRED Up" looking a little more satisfied than they did on Wednesday as they walk back from the plane.

Jon shows his UNL pride.

Nick and Jon pose for crew pictures after their flight. I think we could make more than a few movie posters out of the pictures we took during the week, and this one was no exception.

After the flight debriefing and lunch, everyone headed to JSC for a tour of their facilities. One of the most interesting things we saw was some of the equipment for the Constellation program.

This crawler was designed to be used for transportation on the moon. On the back, two space suits are attached allowing the astronauts to easily craw into these suits and walk away from the crawler. While currently it may take astronauts an hour or more to dress for an EVA, this type of system could cut that time down to a matter of minutes.

The team learns about the crawler while touring the astronaut training facilities at JSC.

Chris Burton, Andrew Dejka, Jack Mondry, and Evan Hilgemann look over the monitors inside the Apollo Mission Control room. It makes one appreciate the technology we now have by thinking about how they sent three men to the moon using computers that had a fraction of the computing power of a typical desktop computer today. I really look forward to watching the next generation of astronauts return to the moon.

Day 9 consisted of loading our equipment in the morning and driving back to Lincoln. We returned home at about 12:30 Saturday morning. Everyone looked exhausted, but the trip truly was unforgettable and was worth the time devoted to the program. We will be analyzing our data from the flight days over the next few weeks as we compile our final report. When we get those updates, I will post them here.

The entire program is an incredible experience, and I really look forward to future UNL teams continuing to participate.