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Blogging a Ride on the 'Vomit Comet'
An anonymous reader writes "Four Duke engineering students have launched a weblog
to document their preparations and impending ride on NASA's 'vomit comet.' The students will study the effects of microgravity on the shapes of cells and the positions of their organelles, such as the nucleus. The schedule is subject to change, but the students expect to take their 12,000 foot plunges Monday in NASA's KC-135A. They plan to provide photos and video."
I would like to shake the hand of the person that came up with the name "Vomit Comet".
[simpsons]
Best...name...ever.
[/simpsons]
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
IANAS and I don't play one on TV either, so does anyone know how you could reduce gravity by means of an airplane?
and then dive! dive! dive! until everyone in the back starts floating.
And thats how it got the name, 'vomit comet'.
really, what is the benefit of sending 4 college kids up in the vomit comet, which will cost tax payers probably hundreds of thousands of dollars? if the answer is research, we should be sending scientists up their, NOT spoiled duke kids.
> 12,000 foot plunges
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...
...
:)
s = ut + 1/2 a * t * t;
with a vertical velocity of 0 from the dive
that makes it
t* t = 819.something
makes it less than 30 seconds of no gravity ??
And add the final deceleration when g-forces really pull you down ?
*vomit*
throwing up and seeing it form a perfect sphere of liquid puke (cohesion in no gravity should be strong enough) is worth the trip.. especially if you blow it towards someone else
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Quite a few of the scenes in Apollo 13 were filmed onboard the KC-135, which is why the weightless "effects" look so good -- they're real.
Nothing but the finest in meaningless drivel
Sounds like a pastry or something. Better look it up ...
organelle n.
A differentiated structure within a cell, such as a mitochondrion, vacuole, or chloroplast, that performs a specific function.
Great, that sure clears things up! The submitter should have said mitochondrion, vacuole, or chloroplast in the first place though ...
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
You actually see a scene where someone does vomit in it, but they quickly turn around or something like that. They didn't re-do the scene cause of the cost.
Actually, the entire planet sucks... hence gravity.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Apple is making toilets now?
Shape of the cells:
Flattened, fractal-shaped
Position of nucleus:
Roof, wall, the face of co-researcher 2
Test setup:
o Zero gravity
o Container with missing lid
Test verification result:
No verification was possible, container broken on impact with forehead of co-researcher 1 after container was accellerated by a furious co-researcher 2
I prefer the more politically-correct term of being repulsion-impaired. "Sucks" could be considered offesnive by fellow humour-challenged homo-sapien friends.
Step 1: Obtain NASA Grant ......
Step 2:
Step 3: Vomit!
Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
iPoo....therefore I am (a bad typist). You likewise fail it buddy. iPoo. Heehee. That's a good one. You just gave me a great idea.
Not to be overly concerned with grossness, but are they planning on actually putting up a video of someone throwing up if it happens? If so, I believe that would be a first. I've heard astronauts talk about people throwing up, and obviously there's the plane's name, but I've never once seen a picture of it happening, or even heard one alluded to. Which really is quite remarkable since the site for NASA's KC-135 says that they've flown over 80,000 flights with it.
"The power to blog a ride on a vomit comet is insignificant next to the power of The Force."
BoD
...so essentially you want [...] something thrown up in a vacuum.
Yes, with pictures, please !-)
The iLoo? Oh, wait, that was Microsoft...
...don't play with their 'pocket rockets'
Thanks very much ladies and gentleman! Make sure you try the veal. Goodnight.
Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G) is booking seats for Vomit-Comet-like weightless flights. The 'ZERO-G Experience' has 20 parabolas--made up of Martian (1/3 gravity), lunar (1/6 gravity) and zero gravity parabolas--and costs $2,950 per seat. Peter Diamandis (founder of the Ansari X Prize) is the CEO.
Hey people, how can 30 seconds of flakey microgravity compare with *WEEKS* of flakey microgravity on board the ISS? Science. Humph. Just more propaganda for elitist crap universities (versus the poor good ones). (ex Bristol UK grad in chemistry)
I've flown the Vomit Comet (though NASA calls it the weightless wonder).
Good fun. Didn't blow chow. The first time you go over the top, they tell you to stand up and grab the cord on the ceiling that runs the length of the airplane.
I stood up.. and by that time was in microgravity.. and smacked my head into the ceiling.
don't know if it qualifies as 'zero G' during the free fall phase tho, considering wind resistance.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
NASA already provides tons of photographs of previous experiments
http://zerog.jsc.nasa.gov/studentmain.html
A blog! No way!
Seriously people. Duke isn't all that special. Over a hundred teams from universities around the US do this every year. Hell, I did it. Guess I know how to make the cover of slashdot come next spring/summer.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
Organelles are really small. Your average mitochondrion doesn't measure but 2 micrometers. It can be expected that gravity will not have a great impact on structures this small, since gravity is the weakest force. Intra- and intermolecular forces at this scale will have a much greater impact and the effects of gravity should become neglegible. Any bio-geeks have more insights on this?
look at those tools.
Hitchhiker's Guide: How to Fly - "Throw yourself at the ground and miss", a good allegory to orbiting, you just miss a whole lot.
meh
West Virginia University's done this for a few years.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lost Sheep to Shepard, you got your ears on?
Why don't companys offer vomit comit-like flights? At the drop of a hat I would pay $1000 for such an experience. I gather each zero-G arc is similar to a takeoff/landing cycle for the arframe, but still, a company could strip out just one plane to do it, then go city to city offering rides.
You just a h8r. Next time your school gets front page coverage, come back and talk.
The thing that they are trying to test is a theory called tensegrity - the idea that changes in cell shape might be transmitted to the nucleus to alter gene expression. A couple of good reviews of this are here and here here. How changes in cells relate to whole organism physiology (like bone loss in microgravity) is a whole other can of worms, though.
I could pick apart their science, but they were very successful in doing one thing - getting a ride on the Vomit Comet. I hope they get the movies that they are after ...
I rode the Vomit Comit back in 1987, as a research participant in Space Adaptation Syndrome (i.e. zero-g motion sickness) studies at the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Lab at Brandeis University. We did 2 or 3 days worth of flights, essentially a 2-mile high roller coaster (40 or so 10,000-foot parabolae with 30 seconds of zero-g at the top of each parabola) over the Gulf of Mexico, and it was truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life. While I didn't get to do the zero-g acrobatics you've seen on TV or in "Apollo 13" (I was doing baseline susceptibility studies, and was seated), I had the fun experience of being hit while blindfolded by a floating teddy bear in a space suit. While I never got to go back (scheduling problems, an engine failure on the ground prior to a flight, etc.), I wouldn't have missed it for the world. And while I only vomited once (some professional researchers were so susceptible that they had to sit out the second and third days to recover), I will tell you that the smell of a padded aircraft cabin with poor ventilation after one of those flights was...powerful. {Professor Jonathan Ezor, Touro Law Center}
My nephew, known as Monzy, blogged his ride on the Vomit Comet (complete with video) over four years ago. Course, "Blog" wasn't a word then.
l at ora inin gm ber
Fun reading!
http://www.monzy.com/intro/intro_mar00.htm#simu
http://www.monzy.com/intro/intro_mar00.htm#tr
http://www.monzy.com/intro/intro_mar00.htm#cha
http://www.monzy.com/intro/intro_mar00.htm
I like the diverse cultures related in this experiment :)
There's a good account of Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) and Billy Gibbons (from ZZ Top) taking a ride on a vomit comet (with video). (via Art Bell)
This sig intentionally left justified.
The all-night buses that replace the subway when it shuts down at 2am here in Toronto, Canada have the nickname "the Vomit Comet". Fortunately it's only once in a while that someone sufficiently hammered will throw up on the bus, but it does happen.
When I saw "blogging a ride on the vomit comet" I thought someone was blogging about all the strange people you meet on those buses (or ones like it). Hmmm.... that gives me an idea...
When life gives you lemons, you CLONE those lemons, and make SUPER-LEMONS. -- Dr. Cinnamon Scudworth, Ph.D
There's a film titled, "The Uranus Experiment, part II" that deals with the effects of microgravity on various biological processes, and was filmed with the Vomit Comet. It explores some very promising applications of microgravity.