The Set Up

PPPL staffers and participating teachers readying experimental equipment that will fly on NASA's Weightless Wonder. The teams will be studying the effects of microgravity on motion, surface tension in bubbles, hydrophilia, burn patterns, and complex fluids.
Photo by Adam Cohen

Rise and Shine

Andrew Zwicker briefs the PPPL team before training starts today at Johnson Space Center. John DeLooper is at far left.
Photo by Adam Cohen

Travel Day

Well, today was a travel day. Our support staff (Kathleen, Deedee, and Lynda) did wonders to move 33 individuals from New Jersey down to Houston (the last plane comes in after 8 PM tonight). Tomorrow is the first day of the NASA experiment. Everyone that I've talked to is excited to be here - especially our teachers. Andrew and his team (as well as many individuals supporting this effort - Engineering, Business Operations) have arranged for six teams of teachers to fly on NASA's Microgravity flights.

Some of us, like me, get to be mentors and help the teachers with their research. I've been working with my team, the Space Cowboys, since May 26th to develop  a research project, build the experiment, file the safety documentation with NASA, and now try to make it work in microgravity.  I'll describe the teams and their experiments in later posts, hopefully with pictures. We'll also use this opportunity to see how NASA conducts their operations. There will be plenty to see and, hopefully, we'll get some good ideas that we might consider in our operations. 
                           --- John DeLooper
                                                                    

Au Revoir to those bound for the Weightless Wonder!

What do you say to friends and colleagues when they are headed for a NASA voyage?

Actors, a superstitious lot, often ask wellwishers to avoid saying, “Good luck” and actually prefer “Break a leg.” That doesn’t seem especially apt for the case we have on our hands. What should you say to a group of PPPLers who are headed now for Johnson Space Center in Houston for a ride aboard the “Weightless Wonder”?

Katherine Trinidad, a press officer at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., did not offer specific answers. “I don’t really know if there is any special etiquette for this,” Trinidad said today.

Okay, if formal rules do not exist for this occasion, we can wing it. So here goes: For our colleagues at PPPL and the team of teachers joining them – all of whom are about to train for and ride the legendary “vomit comet” as part of the NASA Reduced Gravity Research Program -- we’re wishing you a wonderful voyage. We look forward to the stories you will blog about here and the ones you will bring home.

--- Kitta MacPherson

Chasing Down Fugitive Emissions: PPPL Celebrates Earth Day with Reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

In an effort to respond to President Obama's call to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent by the year 2020, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have identified ways to cut emissions that will allow the facility to exceed that goal — a decade early.
http://www.pppl.gov/

Living on the edge: Fusion scientists gear up to learn how to harness plasma energy

Living on the edge: Fusion scientists gear up to learn how to harness plasma energy

Researchers working on an advanced experimental fusion machine are readying experiments that will investigate a host of scientific puzzles, including how heat escapes as hot magnetized plasma, and what materials are best for handling intense plasma powers.

http://www.pppl.gov/

Rush beats Watson

In latest human vs. machine contest, former PPPL scientist Rush Holt now a Congressman beats IBM Watson computer in match: http://www.pppl.gov/