The specially equipped plane flew over the Gulf of Mexico and performed a series of parabolic maneuvers resulting in 30 periods of zero gravity, and six periods each of lunar gravity (1/3 the force of Earth's gravity) and Martian gravity (1/6 the force of Earth's gravity).
The goal of the reduced gravity mission is to conduct an experiment in which students from middle school through college can be involved in both pre- and post-activities connected to the experiment. "The incorporation of this experiment into the curriculum of middle school, high school, and college courses should enhance the curriculum and, hopefully, encourage more students to pursue careers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines," Janes commented.
The mission's experiment tested the motion of an object in zero, lunar, and Martian gravity and compared it to that on Earth. "Outreach activities will probe the value of this knowledge as we look to planning habitats on the Moon and Mars," Janes said. "We are calling it the MEMs project for Motion, Earth, Moon and Mars."
After the flight, Dr. Janes worked with Dr. Paul Goains, physics professor at San Jacinto College North, and San Jacinto College students to simulate the same experiment on earth that was conducted on the plane and made predictions about what occurs in various gravitational forces.
Plans are also in the works to use interactive television to connect middle school, high school, and college students to see if their collection of Earth data match, whether they had the same predictions as to what would happen in-flight, and whether their predictions were accurate. "We will then present them with the first outside viewing of the videos of the in-flight experiment and results," Janes said. "Guided discussion with these students will follow."
Through such educational projects, NASA continues to gain knowledge that benefits space exploration and ultimately the everyday lives of people on the Earth. Janes was chosen as a team member of the C9 project because of her lengthy involvement with NASA.
"NASA's Texas Aerospace Scholars (TAS) office was given the opportunity to select a team of educators who had participated in a TAS program for the zero gravity project," she said. "For several years, I was the principal investigator for the College Aerospace Scholars program, the community college component of the TAS program. Over the years, I have also partnered with NASA on several other grants and outreach efforts."
Janes said she is excited about taking part in a high-tech project that could have far-reaching results, because she has always had a passion for space exploration.
"I have boxes of the early Landsat program slides," she commented. "I used to spend hours in the old education center that was a very small room on the NASA-JSC campus, making copies of information and videos to take back to the classroom." The longtime educator continues to find ways to promote the need for NASA research and its value to society. "This opportunity gives me the opportunity to actually live a dream."
Janes said there is a critical need in high-tech fields, and San Jacinto College is going to great lengths to help students keep in step with latest trends and developments.
"We need to encourage students to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics," she said. "After Sputnik, we had the interest and the enthusiasm in the STEM areas and many students pursued these fields. Later, it seems we became complacent about space exploration, and took it for granted. Congress even stopped providing support at the same level."
Janes noted that China and India have many students pursuing careers in the STEM fields and will surpass the United States in space exploration, just as Russia did in the 1950s.
"We need to interest young people in these areas now so they can take advantage of the knowledge the retiring workers can pass on," she commented. "We need them for the future so the U.S. can continue to forge ahead in space exploration and stay in the lead."
San Jacinto College offers a wide range of course options and study plans in science, technology, engineering and mathematics at each of its three campuses. For more information, please call 281-998-6150, or visit www.sanjac.edu.
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