Students Plan Low-gravity Test for NASA

University of Kentucky News

Media Contact: Dan Adkins - (859) 257-1754, x228

LEXINGTON − Four University of Kentucky mechanical engineering students will travel to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to test the amount of force needed in low-gravity situations to cause bone breaks.

The four – Hannah Grise, Allyson Durborow, John Whitt and Brady Doepke – will conduct their experiments in a simulated low-gravity environment on board NASA’s C-9 aircraft, which produces weightlessness 18 to 25 seconds at a time by executing a series of about 30 parabolas – a steep climb followed by a free fall – over the Gulf of Mexico. During the free falls, the students will be able to gather data in the unique environment and experience near-weightlessness.

The students travel to Houston on Wednesday, April 2, and begin several days of training to prepare for flights that will follow between April 8 and 12. They return to UK on April 13. The trip comes after several months of research by the students, who designed and built most of the equipment being used in the experiment.

The experiment will find spring and damping constants (friction) from impact ground reaction forces on sand, rock and lunar regolith — dust, broken rock or other loose material — during the reduced gravity flights. The data obtained in this experiment will be used by NASA to update their Integrated Medical Model (IMM), and would help determine astronauts’ susceptibility to fractures in case of a fall. The IMM is used by astronauts to assess possible injuries for lunar missions.