Welcome to the Zero Gravity Homepage at the University of San Diego. Here is some background on our recent flight on NASA's KC-135 "Vomit Comet":

The Team
-Andrew Putnam, Team Leader (Senior: Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science)
-Jeffrey Lavery (Senior: Electrical Engineering)
-Asher Langton (Senior: Mathematics)
-Jonathon Velte-Smith (Sophomore; Electrical Engineering)
-Rusty Lencioni (Sophomore; Electrical Engineering)
-Dr. Jeff Wright, Faculty Advisor (Mathematics)
-Dr. Daniel Sheehan, Faculty Advisor (Physics)

Click HERE for more info on the team.

Our Experiment
We set out to investigate a phenomenon known as Faraday waves. When two fluids that resist mixing are forced together, Faraday waves form at their interface immediately before they mix. Click here for a java applet that simulates Faraday waves in two dimensions. The current theory predicts that as gravity decreases, the force required to generate the waves will decrease. We used air and water as our two fluids, and built a tank that can be oscillated vertically. Results from our experiment will be available shortly.

Click HERE to see more about Faraday Waves and our experiment
Click HERE to see what we found

The Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program
NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program provides an opportunity to perform experiments in near-zero gravity. The research takes place on a KC-135 airplane that climbs and dives in 10,000 foot tall parabolas, allowing those inside the plane to experience 20-30 seconds of near weightlessness. A typical flight day includes 30 Zero-G parabolas, one Lunar parabola (~g/6), and one Martian parabola ((~.38g). Prior to the flights, student participants spend about a week in Houston preparing for the flight. The preparation includes a "flight" in NASA's low pressure chamber, where students spend about five minutes without supplemental oxygen at the equivalent of 25,000 feet in order to understand the symptoms hypoxia (oxygen deprivation).

Click HERE for more about the KC-135 Vomit Comet
Click HERE for more info about what we did at NASA

Photos
A short slide-show is available here.

Special Thanks
-Our advisors, Drs. Sheehan and Wright
-Provost Frank Lazarus
-Dean of Business Tom Dalton
-Deans of the School of Arts and Sciences
-The staff of NASA's Reduced Gravity Office


For more information about microgravity research at USD, please contact Andrew Putnam.

Last modified: Mon Apr 29 21:00:04 PDT 2002