That's all folks

To those of you just now stumbling upon this blog, whether you be random internet browser or current/future/past Blue Devil, I would just like to say it was a great ride and I hope that another team from Duke will take it upon themselves to experience this incredible program. We have since graduated, circa Spring 2005, but we will never be able to leave.

Ciao.

Getting Back in the Swing ... of Things?

A quick update to those who still happen to check this blog.

Though we have a bit of a problem with background noise, our dual SYTOX Green / rhodamine phalloidin stain is an apparent success! Well, more or less; we have another set of fixed slides we will stain with an adjusted staining protocol.

The indominable Isaac had a few preliminary viewing sessions of our slides, and the colors for both stains (green and red respectfully) can be seen. From a very rough qualitative observation, it seems as though the distance between the nucleus and the slide decreased slightly in the 2xg samples, as expected. What was not expected was that the distance decreased in our microgravity samples as well, but to confirm this, we will need to look more closely at these images when our team assembles at Duke.

Also, if anyone at Duke is interested in taking part in this program, we are founding a club for the purpose of providing support to any people who have the ambition, guts, and cast iron stomachs to be just as crazy as us! Feel free to email any of us (though just me at jkf4@duke.edu is fine since I haven't discussed this with any of my teammates) for more info on the program. I will be blunt, however: it ain't no walk in the park (well, maybe Central Park at 2 AM). Is it rewarding? A resounding yes.

Look for us on the field during the Student Activities Fair this Saturday!

Back in the ...

[Edit] Amazing, my replacement post was published before original post ... I love the internet sometimes [End Edit]

... swing of things? That was the original title to this post, but my IE happily crashed along with the 200 or so words I had typed already. Here's a summary of what should have been published:

Cells look good; SYTOX Green / rhodamine phalloidin stain are clearly differentiable, though some background noise is visible due to the phalloidin

Isaac is a indominable beast for taking a preliminary look at the cells on the confocal before the rest of us gets there.

The nuclei seem to have moved closer to the slide surfaces in the 2xg samples (as expected) AND the microgravity samples, as compared with our 1xg controls. When the rest of us assemble at Duke, we will investigate in more quantitatively and in more depth.

Come see us promote the new NASA RGSFOP support club that we hope to form at the freshmen Activities Fair this Saturday(?) on East Campus. Let us know if you are interested, and we'll help you in any way we can.

All good things must end...

...but not quite yet.

A quick post from NC. Dan and I made it back safely. I think we were both knocked out during the flight. Anyways, we stained half of our cells down in Houston and are shipping the rest back up to stain here at grand ole Duke. After staining them, I'll probably take a look at the little guys under the confocal microscope after my math exam. We'll post our observations and results as we get them.

In the meantime, enjoy the media that we'll post from time to time and check out our picture gallery (link is on the navigation menu on the right) . To be honest, we were really surprised at the publicity this blog has received. We've been found on slashdot.org and nasawatch.com. We hope you have found our blog as fun to read as it was to write.

Videos? You've Got to be Kidding Me!

Yep, we have video now! You can find them at http://www.duke.edu/~gcs3/NASA. Enjoy!

Peace.

Pictures, Pictures, Everywhere

Hello hello. You've seen the official pictures - but now, you'll get the chance to see the behind-the-scenes ones that completely reveal all our secrets! I know this seems too good to be true, and you're wondering how much this is going to cost you. Well, let me tell you - you won't believe your ears when you hear the deal that we've got for you! Only 4 payments of $19.99 will land you an exclusive look at our experience...oh wait...I can't do that? Alright, then nevermind. Here they are for free...



Here, we're loading our support system (milk crates and duct tape) onto the plane.



And this is the box that we used to do all our experiments in...and yes, it's ghetto, but it did the job and it had three levels of containment (the slide flasks, the box, and the vacuum bag).



Dan is floating...isn't this awesome! MicroG is an absolutely otherworldy experience!!


Isaac and Cookie Monster...meet Mr. Ceiling...



John's floating...as well as everybody else on the plane.



These are Mayra and Brian, two of the nicest people in the world! They literally got us on the plane, whether it was in helping us culturing cells, giving us ideas for the box, or even just staying late at lab so that we could finish what we had to do. They deserve massive props.

We'll be including a video of John's somsersaulting later...for some reason, we can't get upload it right now. But stay tuned!

Peace.

Pictures? We've got 'em!

You can find the official photos taken by the NASA photographers during the program at this website: http://zerog.jsc.nasa.gov/2004SummerCollegeCampaign/viewer.cgi

To find us, look up July 23 Chamber Flight 2, July 26 TRR, July 27 Flight, and July 28 Flight Grp A. Definitive proof that our Cookie Monster has gone where no Cookie Monster has gone before.

Not Really Free; But Feelin Good Nonetheless

Long post; so just a warning.

Like Dan said, Isaac did a pretty good job of summing up the microG experience during the flight, but here are a few more comments:

The first parabola is special because you have no idea what's going to happen (really).  You mentally prepare yourself to float upward, but nothing really happens ... until you push on the floor with a finger and you rocket toward the ceiling, during which your body tells you that you aren't quite in Kansas anymore.

The 2xg pull is infinitely more motion-sick causing than microG.  Turning my head just a few degrees caused some definite ... "hmm, that's not going to be quite right" sensation. 

Microgravity on the KC-135 is great, but has its quirks.  You go up ... then you go left and right ... or not at all, depending on how the plane flies down the parabola.   "Hmm, I could have sworn that wall moved into me, not the otherway around ..."

Stunts of varying amusement:  Headstand, handstand, and single finger stand (I swear I thought everyone else was on the wrong side of the aircraft), long jump in lunar / martian gravity, and of course, the infinite somersault (courtesy of flight director John Yaniec). 

The front of the plane is the best.  Why?  You get the assistance and company of the man of hour, Donn Sickorez.

And no, neither Gary nor I had the chance to use our government provided "motion sick" bags.

That anti-nausea medication didn't treat my team members too well, but I felt great afterward.  I felt like I drank 5 Red Bulls, only without the caffeine-high twitching and anxiety.

I know I'm probably missing some stuff, but in summary:  this program was probably the best experience I've had in my life.  If anyone of you are interested in participating in the RGSFOP, please consider getting a group together and writing up a proposal.  Your work, as I have found, will be well worth it, and the Reduced Gravity Office staff are great people to work with.  And believe me, your body remembers.

 
In other news, life on the ground goes on.  We went to lab for a couple hours Thursday and started cleaning up our materials and staining the cells we fixed on the KC-135.  However, our reagents were kind of lost somewhere between the shipping dept and our lab.  Finally got them, but need to come back Friday (yar!) finish up.

Finally, the JSC tour started Thursday afternoon.  I thought it would be the one the tourists got at Space Center Houston (just next door), but I was gladly mistaken.  We first walked around the mockup bay, where astronauts train in full-sized models various components of the Shuttle and ISS.  Just seeing the magnitude of these parts was inspiring.  Next, we visited the old Mission Control room, where the Apollo (and first Shuttle missions I believe) were commanded from.  The sense of history was amazing, and having the chance to sit at a flight controller's station was priceless.  Finally, we viewed the new Mission Control (which was currently vacant) and the space station control room (which buzzed with activity).  Very nice; very nice.

After dinner, we just had to play some Puerto Rico.  After a hard fought battle shipping sugar and corn, I emerged victorious as my harbor granted me victory points.   Definitely, the best board game I have ever played.

We also played a new card game, Bohnanza.  Object:  Plant beans, trade beans, and harvest beans to earn gold.  Sounds simple right?  Yes and no.  You should find out yourselves.

Well, gotta sleep my 4 hours for a full day at the JSC Friday.   Hmm, I thought my work was done ... guess not. 

Free

Isaac (I flew with him) did a great job of summarizing the microgravity experience so I'll just give my 2 cent plug.  The most honest opinion about the experience is that it's so unique that trying to explain it with words simply cannot do it justice.  I used to think that the experience would be much like floating around in a dream - it's not even close.  Yes you do float around, but your head and muscles just feel different.  To be free from the effects of gravity, even for short spans of time, is an incredibly liberating feeling that you'll *never* forget.  I don't want to think of the experience as floating because activities like swimming or parasailing both involve floating - zero g's isn't about floating, it's about freedom :-)

Unpaid Overtime

Newbies
Proposal research and development - 48 hours
Funding proposals - 12 hours
 
At Duke
Spring Semester Laboratory time - 400+ hours
Experimental Box construction after classes ended - 40+ hours
 
Flight Week
Cell culture pre-flight at Johnson Space Center (JSC) - 20+ hours
Cell culture at JSC on flight dates- 8+ hours
Box safety adjustments pre-flight weekend - 20+ hours

Flight
Total Flight Time - 1.9 hours
Total Time in Microgravity ~ 12 minutes
Total Time in Lunar Gravity ~ 23 seconds
Total Time in Martian Gravity ~ 23 seconds

Post-Flight
Clean-up - 5+ hours
Cell staining - 3+ hours
Retaining mental images of seeing the horizon at 45 degrees- Forever

So in short: well worth the price of admission.

Now excuse me while I sleep and let the Scop-Dex wear off ... more details after my head comes down 20 feet. 

The Odyssey Begins ... and Ends!

5:00 AM - Last time I wake up a landbound mammal.