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Science

Blogging a Ride on the 'Vomit Comet' 117

Posted by simoniker from the what-goes-up dept.
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."
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Blogging a Ride on the 'Vomit Comet' More

Blogging a Ride on the 'Vomit Comet'

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  • WOW! (Score:4, Funny)

    by deutschemonte ( 764566 ) <lane,montgomery&gmail,com> on Thursday July 22, 2004 @05:38AM (#9768278) Homepage
    I would like to shake the hand of the person that came up with the name "Vomit Comet".

    [simpsons]
    Best...name...ever.
    [/simpsons]

    • Re:WOW! (Score:2, Funny)

      by Ford Prefect ( 8777 )
      Best...name...ever.

      (Cue throbbing spherical blob o' puke floating in front of camera...)

      I, for one, welcome our new gelatinous diced carrot overlords!

      (Sorry, it had to be done!)

      • Re:WOW! (Score:2, Funny)

        by Ford Prefect ( 8777 )
        (Sorry, I'm on a roll...)

        Some people are being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster. Hillary's legs are being digested.

        (Beg pardon. Must stop!)
    • I would like to shake the hand of the person that came up with the name "Vomit Comet".

      Only in a well-ventilated area, and only after I saw him wash his hands very thoroughly.

    • "Vomit Comet" is also the nickname for the all-night transit bus that runs along the main east-west street here in Toronto, Canada.

      Certainly it is a pun on the "Red Rocket" (the "official" nickname for our old streetcars), but also accurately describes both a) the speed at which the drivers go, and b) the activities of most of the passengers at 4am.

      Someone should blog *that*.
      • It's been in use for at least fifty years at US military bases, in reference to the bus on which one rides back to base late on Saturday night.

        rj

  • a blog for a 30 second long event ? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Gopal.V ( 532678 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @05:46AM (#9768309) Homepage Journal
    > 12,000 foot plunges

    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 :)
    • Right. I flew on the vomit comet (they prefer to use the term Weightless Wonder) a couple years ago as part of this same program. It is approx. 30 seconds of 0-G followed by 30-45 seconds of 2-G. And those 2-G's come on quick, so the flight director on board yells "Feet down, coming out." at the end of every parabola so that you don't end up smashing your face into the floor of the cabin. As far as vomit goes, they give much training prior to the flight on what to do if you're going to toss cookies.. th
    • Actually, you can get more "freefall" time than that. I think in the case of the vomit comet, "freefall" starts even while the plane is still in a climb... cut thrust and steer it over the top of an inverted parabola.

      Some thrust and steering is still needed because of air resistence, so essentially you want the plane to trace the trajectory (path and velocity) of something thrown up in a vacuum.
      • Hmm - here is a little math.

        Start out at 40,000 feet, going up at 1000 ft/s. Follow a free-fall trajectory.

        In 37s you are at 20,000 feet, falling at about 700 knots (vertically) - that is about as much as any large aircraft could possibly handle (you'd probably have to go full thrust to sustain this speed - in reality the wings would probably fall off).

        Pull out at 2G of accel. In 18s you are at about 10,000 feet flying level.

        So, 30s really is about as much as you're going to get. You'd probably do be
    • They filmed 'Apollo 13' shots in the Vomit Comet, 28 seconds at a time. Some fancy editing, etc. That's how they did weightlessness in 'Apollo 13'.

  • Not quite OT... (Score:4, Informative)

    by alexatrit ( 689331 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @05:57AM (#9768346) Homepage
    Quite a few of the scenes in Apollo 13 [imdb.com] were filmed onboard the KC-135, which is why the weightless "effects" look so good -- they're real.

  • Organelles? (Score:3, Informative)

    by spellraiser ( 764337 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @05:57AM (#9768349) Journal

    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 ...

  • Research result (Score:4, Funny)

    by TobiasSodergren ( 470677 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @06:05AM (#9768371)
    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

  • Sorry... (Score:4, Funny)

    by lewko ( 195646 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @06:16AM (#9768394) Homepage
    Step 1: Obtain NASA Grant
    Step 2: ......
    Step 3: Vomit!
  • 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.

    • Re:Kinda gross (Score:5, Funny)

      by lewko ( 195646 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @06:35AM (#9768432) Homepage
      If I'm not mistaken, the vomiting happens at the bottom of the arc. As such, you probably won't get to see video of zero-gravity vomit formations (hopefully to classical music).... Just some dudes sitting on the floor throwing up.

      It was similar shenanigans which saw Barry Humphries (AKA Dame Edna Everage) banned as a teenager for life from an Australian airline - a ban which remained throughout his stardom and ended only with the closure of the airline.

      His notorious "sick bag" prank involved carrying a tin of condensed soup onto an aircraft, which he would then surreptitiously emptied into an air-sickness bag. At an appropriate juncture, he would walk up and down the aisle pretending to vomit very loudly and violently into the bag. Then, he would proceed to eat the contents to the horror of the passengers and crew, many of whom would start vomiting (for real) as a result. Best...Prank...Ever!
      • "Just some dudes sitting on the floor throwing up"

        At the bottom of the parabola, they're getting about 2 Gs. It's like a super puke with an extra nasty splash.

        -B
        • From experience on the KC-135, I'd say most sickening part was the transition from 2G to 0G over the top. I'll never forget my first parabola on it, I thought I was gonna pass out. They have a digital display at the front and back of the cabin indicating the G's you're pulling. The number even tends to go negative by a few tenths over the top.
      • It's actually a relatively simple practical joke, and definitely hilarious. All that's required is a simple can of Campbell's (TM) Chunky Soup,... ;-) Doing it today would be quite interesting, though - try getting a metal soup can past the TSA guys at the airport without a few questions! Granted, it's not a weapon, but they'd have to be goin', "what the...?" when you try taking it in your carry on bag. I guess you can always say that it's your alternative to the airline food!

  • Fly weightless flights... profit! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by colonist ( 781404 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @07:05AM (#9768529) Journal
    Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G [nogravity.com]) 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.

  • ..brain on drugs? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Fallen Andy ( 795676 )
    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)
    • 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 would agree, except that many of the best RGSFOP teams are from small Universities. Actually, in my extensive experience with the program, the worst teams are from the "best" schools. Take a look at this years teams for more info:

      http://microgravityuniversity.j [nasa.gov]

  • Photographs of Experiments (Score:3, Informative)

    by ghack ( 454608 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @07:53AM (#9768772)
    NASA already provides tons of photographs of previous experiments

    http://zerog.jsc.nasa.gov/studentmain.html [nasa.gov]

  • 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.
    • Duke isn't all that special.
      Guess I know how to make the cover of slashdot come next spring/summer.

      Ahh, but you're forgetting about that iPod deal. Instant CredibilityTM

  • West Virginia University's done this for a few years.
  • 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.
    • "Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G [nogravity.com]) 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." POsted by Colonist awhile ago.

  • Note from a Vomit Comet Veteran (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jezor ( 51922 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @11:26AM (#9770589) Homepage
    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 [brandeis.edu]. 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 [mailto]}
  • 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 [24.174.1.65])
  • 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...
  • 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.

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