NASA's Defying Gravity Program for Undergraduates

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Spring

2014

Interactions - SPS Chapters in Action

NASA's Defying Gravity Program for Undergraduates

By:

Sesha Srinivasan, Assistant Professor of Physics

Florida Polytechnic University

The Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program, managed by the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, TX, provides a unique academic experience. Undergraduate students in the program can successfully propose, design, fabricate, fly, and evaluate a reduced-gravity experiment of their choice over the course of four to six months. The overall experience includes scientific research, hands-on experimental design, test operations, and educational/public outreach activities. The students' microgravity aircraft flies 30 parabolic maneuvers to produce periods of altered gravity ranging from weightlessness to two times the force of Earth’s gravity.

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