Thursday, February 28, 2008











On our last day in Houston we toured Johnson Space Center. The above photo shows us at Rocket Park where a Saturn 5 rocket is stored that would have been used for Apollo 18. The huge door we are in front of is for a giant vacuum chamber used to simulate outer space conditions. We visited a lab where actual size training models of the ISS, space shuttle, and other awesome equipment is used to train astronauts. We even saw the crew of STS 126 working and another crew practicing emergency escape maneuvers. Glenn especially enjoyed our tour of historic mission control!
Thank you for following our blog. We look forward to sharing many more photos, video, and information with our students, collegues, and friends.
Go Parkside!!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008






Today Mr. Marsh, Mrs. Wagner, and Mrs. Weatherwax ran Parkside's experiment on the microgravity plane. Everything went smoothly and they even had extra time to run some toy experiments and do some interesting activities such as sommersaults, handstands, and the lizard, which is moving in a circle around the walls, floor, and ceiling of the plane. We are pleased with the data that was collected and can't wait to share more detailed information with everyone.
After the flight we had a DLN with the entire Parkside student body and staff. It was so great to see and talk to everyone! Thank you so much to Ron Boyle and Parkside staff for taking the time and effort to bring the students to the assembly! Students, you had such great questions and the people here at NASA were impressed with fact that the whole school came to the DLN. Parkside rocks!! Please check out the link below for more NASA photograhps from today's flight.




Tuesday, February 26, 2008


























Today was flight day for me. Yes, I did

have just as much fun as it looked like I did. The picture was taken of me trying to use a paddle ball in micro-G. It is definitely a game that need gravity to work. I took the medication that was given to me in a pre-flight briefing to prevent motion sickness. After that we boarded the plane we took off out over the Gulf of Mexico. A few minutes into flight they let us get out of our seats to get our experiments in place. Our experiment is very efficient and only took a few minutes to set up. They gave us fifteen minutes to get things ready and then gave us the warning signal that the parabolas were starting. Everyone at NASA was very helpful and told us when we were going to enter 2-G each time. That was tough. It felt like someone was sitting on my chest. They would give us the get ready signal to enter micro-G. Next thing we knew our feet were coming out from underneath us. We had to be careful not to kick anyone around us. I did somersaults and what they call ed the lizard climb, where you climb the walls and ceiling of the plane. I also did push ups with people on my back that simulated the gravitational pull on the Moon. I even looked out the window in 2-G and micro-G. Mr Caitlin and Mr. Riedel. I did it all without throwing up once. To all of the staff and eighth grade students: Do you recognize the person in the Parkside sweatshirt. You win!!! It is Col. Johnson. We met him tonight to talk about his upcoming mission. He has read you cards and really appreciated them. He is going to come see us when he returns from his mission which is due to launch in two weeks. Well everyone else will fly tomorrow. I am sure it will be just as amazing as mine was. We will talk to everyone at the video conference Wednesday afternoon. Some of our pcitures have been posted from NASA photographers. Look at the dates for our group. Mrs. Damm http://zerog.jsc.nasa.gov/2008_NES/viewer.cgi







We prepared our experiment for the first day's flight. We posted our Parkside signs and put out our data collection materials. Mrs. Weatherwax practiced her microgravity moves for her turn on the flight tomorrow.
Mrs. Damm and Mr. Petternill from NASA are on the plane as we write this entry. We are anxiously awaiting their return in anticipation of hearing about their experience and the experiment results. More photos will be posted tonight. Thank you for viewing our blog! Go Parkside! Go JPS!!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Monday's Photos











This is the "Weightless Wonder." It is a converted C-9 which NASA uses to run experiments in microgravity. The hangar also houses other various NASA jets. Many people work in this hangar working on the planes as engineers, repair and maintainance technicians, safety inspectors, and program directors.
Here we are loading our experiment on the plane. We had to make sure all parts were securely fastened and met all NASA safety requirements. The Parkside microgravity experiment is GO FOR FLIGHT!
Today we had our test readiness review, the latest big hurdle between us and flight day. This was where we presented our hardware to a bunch of NASA people for their review. They were looking at safety issues and we must be cleared by them in order to fly. The NASA officials were impressed by the simplicity yet efficiency of our experiment. We all received our flight suits today. We went out and bought some toys tonight that we can video tape in micro-gravity. Mrs. Damm will be flying tomorrow morning. We have to report to the field early in the morning for here flight briefing. The rest of the team will be working on reports while she is flying. We look forward to telling you all about it. Weather is still warm here but not as warm as this weekend.

Saturday, February 23, 2008







We took a day off from our NASA duties. We started our day out healthy with a workout at the gym. We went to The Space Center at Johnson. We toured the boardwalk at Kemah which is along the Gulf of Mexico. Ms. Wagner and Mrs. Weatherwax had to clean off their feet in the fountain after playing in the mud. We visited a historic schoolhouse where Mr. Marsh was not well behaved and Mrs. Damm had to escort him out of the schoolhouse. Tomorrow we will be going to Galveston and looking at historical places there.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Pictures Friday February 22, 2008






Neutral Buoyancy Lab - 6.2 Million Gallons H2O.
Inside are mock-ups of International Space Station nodes and the long item is a mock-up of the ISS Truss. The dots on the modules are air holes to prevent the pieces from floating to the surface.
Shown above is the hypobaric Chamber in which we trained to get accustomed to conditions in micro-gravity. We are shown at right geared up for the chamber and are pleased to say that we all successfully completed the requirements for flight.
The NBL employs divers that conduct research and assist the astronauts in their training, physicians that work with the hypobaric chamber tests and training/research activities at NBL, engineers that design and construct the pool facilities and mock-ups, and many other support personnel. There are many exciting career opportunities for Parkisde students at NASA NBL and other NASA facilities.


Well where do we start tonight? I can sympathize with students sitting through lectures after today. We sat through hours of them this morning. After lunch we were all fitted with our breathing apparatus. Once we were in chamber and hooked up I hated it. I felt so claustrophobic when we were on 100% oxygen, before we went up in altitude. No one had any problems. We felt a little dizzy, I was really warm, Mr. Marsh and Ms. Wagner had big smiles, Mrs. Weatherwax was one tought cookie. We are all certified to fly now and ready for next week. We have to wear these special badges for the rest of the evening in case we have decompression sickness. Not to worry though. NASA will be posting all of our pictures from today on a special website probably Monday. I will give you the site then. We are going to post some pictures from today also. If anyone has any questions just ask us and we will do the best we can to answer then in our blog entries. It was nice today but a little cooler.

Thursday, February 21, 2008




Well everyone it has been a very exciting day. We unpacked our experiment and I attended a briefing in the morning. In the afternoon we had some more briefings and were under a lightening hold for awhile. The big event of the day was when we attended the astronauts homecoming. Mr Marsh and Mrs Weatherwax were able to have their picture taken with Leland Melvin. Here is a link with more information on him. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/profile_lelandmelvin.html. Tomorrow brings a day of being busy in the classroom. We will go through some physiological training and spend the afternoon in the chamber.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Arrival

Well here we are in warm but rainy Houston. We arrived this afternoon just in time for our first meeting. We received some awesome news at our meeting. We will be at the field tomorrow afternoon when the astronauts arrive back here in Houston. We are all super excited. The plan for the day is to unpack the expermiment, finish setting it up, and check to make sure that everything is still working. We will have plenty to tell tommorow night. Hoepfully, I can figure out how to download some pictures for you. I will put Mr. Marsh on that.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Delivery

Well, it has arrived. I received word this week from the Reduced Gravity Office in Houston that our package has arrived. We are busy taking care of loose ends here in Jackson, and packing over our long weekend. We leave Wednesday morning. The first blog entry during our trip will be posted Wednesday night. I must say we are getting a little excited, and nervous too at this point.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Toys In Space

We held our NASA family night this last Thursday. The focus of the night was on gravity and how toys behave in space. Those in attendance were given a lesson on gravity and micro-gravity, briefed on our upcoming trip to Houston, and given a chance to experience how specific toys behave here on Earth due to gravity. Those students who participated will have a chance to participate in a DLN event in March where thy will learn how those same toys behaved in space.
We learned this week that Amy Cantu will not be able to travel with us to Houston. It was an oversight on our part. NASA does not fund ground crew. We are sad that she can not join us but, we offered to mail her home a cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Shipping Day

Yeah!!!!
We can not believe it. The shipping day is finally here. After a lot of fabricating work done by Bill Damm of the Toyota Technical Center, our experiment was finally shipped to Houston this afternoon. We can not thank everyone enough that has helped to get our project to this point. Our next big event is Thursday’s family night. See you there!!!