All Aboard!

 

Our experiment: Will these spheres pack in Hexagon formation in microgravity?

Our experiment: Did you know the only way spheres pack on Earth is in hexagonal shape? We are testing to see if they pack the same way where there is little gravity. Our experiment has spheres between 2 plates of Lexan (a special fiberglass).  We will be pulling on the lever during microgravity (when there is little gravity) and then again when we hit hypergravity (2X the normal gravity) to see what happens to the spheres. 

 

 

 

Today was jam packed. We fixed the broken bar on our experiment and we loaded it onto the Boening 727.

Drilling a hole in our new bar.

 

Putting the experiment back together as a team.

 

 

Our experiment was loaded onto the plane with a fork lift.

 

 

Giving the experiment a run through. We had to place it into something called a “glove box”. You can’t see the top cover in the picture but it is to make sure all the

pieces stay in one place. Even one little loose object getting into the engine could cause big problems.

 

 

 

Even though I don’t fly in the plane until Friday, half of the CREC team will fly on Thursday. I am very excited for them and I can’t wait to see you on our video conference!!!