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.
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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