"SO COOL:" STUDENTS FLOAT AND FLY FOR SPACE RESEARCH

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - "So cool," says Melissa Franzen, a summer student at the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Space and Planetary Sciences: Cool to work with NASA engineers on a space research experiment she helped design, and cool to float about in space, weightless, with a team of fellow student scientists.

She had just returned with four University of Arkansas students from Houston, where they had conducted the University’s second experiment with microgravity. The student researchers wondered if they could reproduce some of the strange properties of meteorites, rocks that have fallen on Earth that scientists believe come from asteroids. They also wanted to see if they could produce some of the curious surface features observed by NASA’s NEAR spacecraft when it encountered and landed on the asteroid Eros last year.

During the academic year, Franzen is a chemistry major at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, while Ryan Godsey, Jim Czlapinski, Mike Myers and Amber Staughn are physics majors at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

They designed and constructed an experiment that they proposed to NASA, and they were selected for flight this July. NASA achieves microgravity by flying a KC-135 aircraft, which is the military equivalent of the Boeing 707, in a steep upwards flight path to about 30,000 feet, and then tipping it over, coming down to about 20,000 feet at almost free-fall. During the free fall, everything on the aircraft becomes effectively weightless. Everything that is not tied to the floor floats through the air, including the student scientists.

Now that the students are back, they must examine several hours of digital video images from two cameras they had on the plane, one mounted on the apparatus and one that was hand held. They will look for color changes in the dust as light stony material separated from dark metal, and they will look for craters filled with fine dust layers. On asteroid Eros, such dust layers have been called "ponds" because of their physical resemblance in appearance to ponds on Earth.

Proposing an experiment, working with NASA’s experts, raising funds and organizing the trip, writing a science report and conducting school visits and lectures all has been a fantastic experience for the team.

"The University has been marvelous," said Jim Czlapinski, who took on the task of raising the money. The academic departments, the colleges and the graduate school all contributed.

The students want to give something back to the community by offering slide shows and lectures to anyone interested in sharing the experience. Amber Straughn is leading the school visits and lectures effort, and wants to hear from anyone who would like the team to visit. Her e-mail address is anholle@uark.edu .