NASA Sponsors Reduced Gravity Technology Test Flights

NASA recently sponsored a series of flights from Ellington Field in Houston to test technologies in reduced gravity conditions. The flights marked the third year of operations for NASA's Facilitated Access to the Space Environment for Technology program, called FAST. The 16 research teams that participated were comprised of small businesses, university groups and NASA researchers from Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Texas and California. The teams were selected competitively based on the value of their technology to NASA and the potential to improve the technology through testing in the unique, reduced-gravity environment.

"University students from Florida to California, private companies and NASA centers all participated in this latest round of technology test flights," said NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This commercially-provided test platform allows small technology innovators a unique way to test systems before they reach the harsh and unforgiving environment of space, providing a proving ground at the high frontier." The FAST program is designed to help reduce the risk of using new technologies during space missions. The flights also provide insight into why some technologies may fail before deploying them on a costly ride into the unforgiving environment of space.

The flights were on a Boeing 727 airplane operated under contract to NASA by the Zero Gravity Corporation in Vienna, Va. They simulated the weightless environment of space and the reduced-gravity conditions of the moon. The FAST program paid for the flight time and operations while each research team secured separate funding for their technology development. The aircraft provides a series of short periods of reduced gravity lasting about 25 seconds. By repeating the maneuver, researchers obtain approximately 15 minutes of cumulative test time during each flight. Two flights with lunar gravity conditions and two flights with zero gravity conditions were conducted with approximately 10 projects and 25 to 30 researchers on each flight.

Cosmic Lens Used to Probe Dark Energy for First Time

Astronomers have devised a new method for measuring perhaps the greatest puzzle of our universe dark energy. This mysterious force, discovered in 1998, is pushing our universe apart at ever-increasing speeds. For the first time, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope were able to take advantage of a giant magnifying lens in space a massive cluster of galaxies to narrow in on the nature of dark energy. Their calculations, when combined with data from other methods, significantly increase the accuracy of dark energy measurements. This may eventually lead to an explanation of what the elusive phenomenon really is.

"We have to tackle the dark energy problem from all sides," said Eric Jullo, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It's important to have several methods, and now we've got a new, very powerful one." Jullo is lead author of a paper on the findings appearing in the Aug. 20 issue of the journal Science. Scientists aren't clear about what dark energy is, but they do know that it makes up a large chunk of our universe about 72 percent. Another chunk, about 24 percent, is thought to be dark matter, also mysterious in nature but easier to study than dark energy because of its gravitational influence on matter that we can see. The rest of the universe, a mere four percent, is the stuff that makes up people, planets, stars and everything made up of atoms.

In their new study, the science team used images from Hubble to examine a massive cluster of galaxies, named Abell 1689, which acts as a magnifying, or gravitational, lens. The gravity of the cluster causes galaxies behind it to be imaged multiple times into distorted shapes, sort of like a fun house mirror reflection that warps your face. Using these distorted images, the scientists were able to figure out how light from the more distant, background galaxies had been bent by the cluster a characteristic that depends on the nature of dark energy. Their method also depends on precise ground-based measurements of the distance and speed at which the background galaxies are traveling away from us. The team used these data to quantify the strength of the dark energy that is causing our universe to accelerate.

NASA Seeks Undergrads to Defy Gravity for Science and Engineering

NASA is offering undergraduate students an opportunity to test an experiment in weightless science as part of the agency's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. Proposals are due by Oct. 27. The program, managed by the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, provides aspiring explorers a chance to propose, design and fabricate a reduced gravity experiment. Selected teams will get to test and evaluate their experiment aboard a microgravity aircraft.

The specially modified jet aircraft flies approximately 30 roller-coaster-like climbs and dips to produce periods of micro and hyper-gravity, ranging from weightlessness to three times the force of Earth's gravity. "This project gives students a head start in preparing for future ventures by allowing them to do hands-on research and engineering in a truly reduced gravity laboratory," Program Manager Douglas Goforth said. Interested teams also should submit a letter of intent by Sept. 22.

This step is optional, but serves as an introductory notice that a team plans to submit a proposal for the competition. All applicants must be U.S. citizens. Full-time students must be at least 18 years old. NASA will announce the selected participants on Dec. 8. The actual flights will take place in summer 2011. Selected teams may invite a full-time, accredited journalist to fly with them and document the experiment and gravity-defying experience. With this program, NASA continues its tradition of investing in the nation's education programs with the goal of strengthening the future workforce.