Carthage Microgravity Team selected for 2010 NASA program

Students to conduct research aboard NASA's Weightless Wonder

For the third straight year, a team of Carthage students has been selected to fly with NASA this spring, conducting research aboard the Weightless Wonder microgravity aircraft.

The Carthage Microgravity Team is one of 13 teams selected by NASA to participate in its Systems Engineering Educational Discovery program, or SEED. SEED pairs NASA researchers with undergraduate student teams to design, build and conduct experiments essential to NASA goals.

Students travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where they tour NASA facilities and meet NASA scientists and astronauts. They then conduct an experiment aboard the Weightless Wonder aircraft as it flies a series of rollercoaster-like dips and climbs that simulate zero gravity, lunar gravity (1/6 g) and Martian gravity (1/3 g).

Carthage’s Microgravity Team will be joined by teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Washington University, Yale University, the University of Wisconsin, Auburn University, Ohio State University, the University of Nebraska, the University of Toledo, the University of Kentucky, the University of Colorado, and Boise State University, which will send two teams to Houston.

The Carthage team was also selected for SEED in 2008 and 2009. The 2008 team studied the efficiency of lunar dust filtration systems. The 2009 team measured the dynamic angle of repose of lunar soil in lunar gravity and a vacuum.

Read about Carthage's 2009 trip to the Johnson Space Center.