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Hudson Teachers Tells Tales From Microgravity

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: December 17, 2008

Mary Epperson's feet were back on the ground but her head was still up in the clouds as she stood before her students Monday at Hudson Middle School.

Less than 24 hours earlier she had experienced something that until just a few years ago had only been known to astronauts and few others, the feeling of floating virtually weightless in the air, and she did it without having to go into orbit.

Epperson was part of a group who went up on a flight with the Space Florida Microgravity Program, offered to teachers and students to give them a taste of the near-future, when civilian space flight will be common.

Using a Boeing 727-200 originally modified for astronaut training, passengers take 90-minute flights, during which the plane performs several parabolic arcs, steep climbs and sudden dives, causing a 25- to 30-second window when people inside the plane experience a decrease in gravity, up to near-zero or "microgravity" comparable to actually being in space.

Teachers are encouraged to take part in the program so they can show their students the adventures that might be theirs if they pursue careers in science. To that end, it was "mission accomplished" as Epperson stood before her students wearing the flight suit she'd been issued, as eager to share her firsthand insights as they were to hear them.

"It was the coolest thing I've ever done in my life," she said to her second-period class. "There's no experience like it in the world."

In the days leading up to the flight, they had spent class time coming up with experiments she could perform. Would a yo-yo work without gravity? What would happen to a parachute attached to a toy soldier? Would water stay in a cup even if there was a hole in the bottom?

But Space Florida flights are under the same federal restrictions as commercial flights, and some of the experiments didn't get past security. What did had to be stowed away in bags.

"You really had to hustle to get your experiments out," Epperson said. "There were only a handful of us that were able to get any done."

Really, the experiments had already served their purpose by stoking the students' imaginations, revolving around one central question: What's it like? Epperson told them the closest thing most people could compare it to would be submerged in water.

"You're tempted to kick," she said. The difference is kicking doesn't do anything.

The flights introduce the passengers to reduced gravity gradually. On the first parabola, the effect is called "Martian Gravity," where you feel one-third of your normal weight. On the next two, it's "lunar gravity," about one-sixth of your weight. It's still a shock, Epperson said, the first time you experience microgravity and float in the air.

"It's like having a group of 5-year-olds," she said. Everyone flies around the cabin, trying not to crash into one another or land on anyone when the gravity comes back.

Epperson's students were filled with questions - Is it hard to breathe in microgravity? Can you propel yourself across the cabin just by blowing hard?

The answer to both was no, but the questions showed the degree to which they were thinking.

One man tried to blow up a balloon, she said, despite warnings.

The plane has long had the nickname "The Vomit Comet," and about a quarter of those on Epperson's flight personally found out why.

Actually it turned out to be kind of interesting and amusing, Epperson said. They were all issued "sick sacks." One woman didn't hold her sack close enough and everything came up on her - again - hitting her in the face. On one of the parabolas, a young man next to Epperson didn't get his sack out in time. She said she turned to see a cloud of used M&Ms floating toward her. The odd thing was, when it hit her sleeve in microgravity, it just bounced off, much to her relief.

Epperson did not have to use a sick sack, but she did experience some weird sensations once she got back on solid ground, she said. When she got home and stepped into the shower, it suddenly felt like she was in motion.

That night, she was at her daughter's birthday party, and when she tried to read the birthday card, the letters looked to her like they were rising off the page and dancing around.

This fascinated the students, and led to an impromptu discussion of why that might have happened and how it compares to seasickness.

Epperson told the students how Space Florida's intention, and hers, was to get them thinking about what was possible in their lives if they apply themselves. That, too, was something she could now vouch for firsthand.

"I probably never would have done this if I wasn't a schoolteacher," she told them. "I never would have thought about it. I wanted to be an inspiration to you. I wanted to thank you for inspiring me."

Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or klowry@suncoastnews.com.

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