Four Maine students are preparing to be launched into near-zero gravity this summer. More than just a thrill ride or a photo opportunity, the flight is part of a research collaboration with NASA that could have very real applications for the future of space exploration.
The students themselves will stop short of leaving Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, they will board a modified jetliner at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The aircraft will soar over the Gulf of Mexico at altitudes of up to 34,000 feet, creating within it a condition of hypergravity-about twice the normal pull of earth-for about 30 seconds.
Upon reaching peak altitude, the plane quickly “noses down” and begins a series of steep curves for about 25 seconds, allowing passengers to experience the freedom of virtual weightlessness commonly associated with space travel. The process is repeated 29 times before landing.
But it’s not all about floating and fun.
From a research standpoint, the flight will allow students to study what impact the conditions of hypergravity and microgravity may have on the ability of DNA to repair itself, a question that is vital to human health during extended periods of space travel.
This is no small issue at modern-day NASA. The organization is slowly but steadily moving forward with its initiative, announced by President George W. Bush in 2004, to put Americans back on the Moon by 2020, and past it shortly thereafter.
“No matter what the outcome of the data, we know our work will contribute, even if it is a small impact, to the design of the lunar station,” says Dr. John Wise, director of the Wise Laboratory for Environmental and Genetic Toxicology at USM. “Maybe someday we will be able to point at the moon with a base on it and say ‘We helped, the university, its faculty and students, helped to build that.'”
The group’s selection by NASA was based on the merits of a research proposal by John Wise Jr., a freshman biology major at USM. John, the son of Dr. Wise, not only shares a name with his dad, but also a passion for science.
The team will be the very first from Maine to participate in NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, which also goes by the snappier title “Microgravity University.”
In each annual session, teams of undergraduates from across the country are invited to conduct experiments of their own design. They map out and conduct the research, with university professors and NASA personnel available to assist wherever needed.
“A lot of our work here involves students assisting.” says John Wise Sr., “but this is truly a student-driven project, where we help out.”
In honor of the team’s first-in-the-state status, they have adopted as their namesake the Maine state motto: DIRIGO, which appropriately translates from Latin as “I lead.”
When they arrive at Houston in mid-July, the team will join others from schools such as Texas A&M and Rhodes College, who will all be there to conduct unique studies of their own.
“It was really a matter of being in the right place at the right time,” says Benjamin Freedman of the moment he received the offer to participate from his professor, Dr. Michael Mason.
Freedman, a third-year chemical and biological engineering major at UMaine Orono, is one of three students joining John Wise Jr. on the flight. The others are Adam Courtemanche, a senior majoring in information technology at USM, and Michael Browne, a sophomore biological engineering major at UMO.
Two more students will be coming along for the ride: James Wise, a freshman chemistry major at USM, will be available as an alternate flyer, and Nick Link, a senior at Portland High School, will be participating as part of the ground crew.
Whatever luck was involved in the opportunity, it is now a matter of serious work.
Aside from the extensive planning that goes into setting up each experiment, the students are charged with the responsibility of raising all their own travel expenses. Microgravity University stops after covering all of the flight and training costs.
Under the guidance of Freedman as treasurer, fundraising is just getting underway in Orono. It is estimated that the cost of getting the team and the four-person ground crew to Houston will be approximately $19,000.
“We’ll do some bake sales, car washes, small events like that,” says Wise Jr.
They will also be sponsored in part by the Maine Space Grant Consortium, which has agreed to match the group’s fundraising efforts for up to $5,000.
The microgravity research program is the second recent collaboration between the USM and NASA. Just as news broke that the students’ proposal had been approved, it also was announced that Wise Laboratories would be taking part in a separate, $1.4 million study to determine the hazards of lunar dust on human health.