NASA Reduced-Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program
 For more information, visit the NASA Reduced-Gravity Student Flight Opportunities
Program. To apply for team support, visit Washington NASA Space Grant Team Awards.
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| Before her team begins work, Seattle Central Community College student Violette Manning take a spin aboard NASA's C-9B aircraft to get used to moving in reduced gravity. |
Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium regularly sponsors student teams from our state to travel to Houston to perform experiments aboard Johnson Space Center's flying reduced-gravity laboratory.
The NASA Reduced-Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program provides a unique academic experience for undergraduate students to design, build, fly, and evaluate their own experiments in microgravity.
Each team has two days of flights aboard a specially-modified NASA KC-135 aircraft, the same plane used to simulate weightless in space in the film Apollo 13.
Flight alumni Kevin Strecker and others say their experiences fueled their passion for a career in science and even helped shape their professional research.
"It was the microgravity project I worked on for the student flight experience that got me interested in my current field," says Strecker, now completing a doctorate at Rice University.
In 2002, Strecker—who flew with one of the first teams in 1997—was invited to talk at COSPAR, the international space congress. His research (funded by a NASA microgravity grant) is part of a team effort that could lead to sophisticated atomic lasers predicting volcanic eruptions on Earth and even mapping a probable subsurface ocean on Europa.
2010 Team
University of Washington
Faculty Advisor: Professor James Riley
Students
Stephen Choi, Ashley Clark, James Coe, Jon Fowler, Alex LaComb, Jeff Rider, Amanda Rutherford, Matt Walker and Kyle Wetzlar.
Rotational Damping of Slosh in Microgravity
2009 Team
Seattle Pacific University/others (NASA MUST Program)
Advisor: Dr. Cattien V. Nugyen, NASA Ames Research Center
Students
Olivia Lenz (Seattle Pacific University), Tanya Miracle (University of Akron), Hannah Clevenson (Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art), Kristine Collins (University of Virginia), and Courtney Giannini (Columbia University.
Microwave Synthesis of ZnO Nanowires under Microgravity Conditions
2007 Team
Seattle Central Community College/others
Faculty Advisor: Professor Peter Wu (Southern Oregon University)
Students: Violette Manning and Bolan Meek (SCCC); Sean Coyle, Nicholas Kennedy, Lennon Pierce and Ian Taylor (OSU); Danielle Hall, Chad Ensor and James Schellinger (Oregon Institute of Technology)
Dual Phase Flow Through a 2-D Fixed Bed
2006 Team
Seattle Central Community College
Faculty Advisors: SCCC Instructor Rebecca Hartzler and UW Professor Tom Matula
Students: David Chapman, Seth Gordon, James Jenson, Michael King and Violette Manning
Removing Bubbles from Heating Elements with Ultrasound
2004 Team
University of Washington
Faculty Advisor: Professor Robert Breidenthal
Students: Jonathan Axup, Jeffrey Boulware,Ikaika Young and Kakani Young
U-Drive: The Effects of Varying Acceleration Functions on Rayleigh-Taylor Flow in a Microgravity Environment
2003 Team
University of Washington/others
Faculty Advisor: Professor Linda Bushnell (UW)
Students: David Bliss and J. Lee Zeman (UW); Matthew Dockery (Seattle Central Community College); Paul Saitta (Case Western Reserve University); Adam Bliss (Harvey Mudd College); and Erin Karper (Purdue University)
GYRE: Evaluation of Visual Navigation Techniques for Autonomous Free-Flying Robots
2002 Team
University of Washington
Faculty Advisor: Professor Todd Anderson
Students: Holly Devlin, Karen Kennell, Graylan Vincent and David Young
Continous Automated Machining Process in Numerous Gravities
2001 Teams
University of Washington
Faculty Advisor: Professor Tom Matula
Students: Justin Reed, Andrew Cook, David Halaas and Paul Parazzoli
Sonochemically-Induced Nanoparticle Formation in Microgravity
University of Washington/Seattle University
Faculty Advisor: Researcher Michael Bailey
Students: Laurence Tomsic, Peter Derrick, Ashley Little, Ryan Ollos and Nicole White
Ultrasonic Detection of Organ Displacement in Microgravity
1999 Teams
Washington State University
Faculty Advisor: Professor Philip Marston
Students: Josh Clearman, Scott Douthit, Chris Perkins, and Rick Graff
University of Washington
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tom Matula
Students: Lisa Couret and Trevor Olson
(For more on the 1999 teams and their projects, see the Seattle Times article.)
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