WE'RE IN!!!

I just thought I'd take a moment and share some good news! My team and I got selected to fly ourselves and our scientific experiment on NASA's KC-135 or better known as the "Vomit Comet." This aircraft is capable of flying 30-40 parabolas that simulate 20-30 second intervals of a zero-g environment (i.e. weightlessness). Every year NASA has a competition for Undergraduate students to submit a proposal for a weightless scientific experiment. Yesterday we found out that we have been selected for flight! We will build and test our test apparatus this semester and then fly sometime in the Spring or early Summer out of Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Here is a link to a video that explains the competition better that I ever could.

http://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/theProgram/video/video.cfm

For those of you interested, our experiment is to conduct a study of the coupled mode oscillations of a Wilberforce Pendulum. Basically its just a spring-mass system that oscillates between linear and rotational motion. Here is a link to a video on youtube.com of this pendulum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S42lLTlnfZc

For our experiment we are trying to constrain the bending moment so that the second mode can occur in a zero-g environment. If you want more info you can ask. I think I've said enough to satisfy most people's curiosity. :)

And just to clarify, YES, I get to ride on the vomit comit!