HOUSTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- NASA says it is accepting proposals from U.S. college undergraduates interested in designing projects and taking part in reduced gravity experiments.
The Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center in Houston has posted an Oct. 30 deadline for undergraduate teams to submit proposals to research, design, fabricate, fly and evaluate reduced gravity experiments.
NASA's modified McDonnell Douglas DC-9 jet aircraft will perform a series of steep climbs and freefalls over the Gulf of Mexico, creating multiple periods of reduced gravity. Each parabolic maneuver produces about 25 seconds of weightlessness, and, by changing its flight path, the jet can produce periods of simulated lunar gravity.
"These students will be the ones helping to design our trips back to the moon and beyond," said Donn Sickorez, university affairs officer at Johnson. "By putting them through the same procedures as our space research scientists, and providing them with a three-dimensional reduced gravity laboratory, we're better preparing students for these future missions."
Each proposal will be evaluated for technical merit, safety and an outreach plan. The selected proposals will be announced Dec. 11 and flown next year.
