Thursday, May 1, 2008

Zero Gravity at UAF

UAF students get a lot of chances to take their learning outside the classroom, designing and building rockets, ice arches, and steel bridges (to name just a few projects)--but some students even get outside the pull of gravity. A group of UAF engineering students designed an experiment that was tested on NASA's Weightless Wonder (aka "The Vomit Comet"), a special jet that climbs to 35,000 feet then plunges down at a 45 degree angle--repeating this process 30 times. In between each rise and fall, the jet's passengers experience 25 seconds of weightlessness as the plane makes an arc over the top of the earth with its engines slowed to an idle. It's one more way students are getting a one-of-a-kind experience at a one-of-a-kind school. Check out http://www.uaf.edu/asgp/microgravity/ to learn more!

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