PPPL's Zwicker and TCNJ Students Take Dusty Plasma Experiment on NASA's "Weightless Wonder"

From left are team DPX members Chris Conniff, Darrick Jones and Andrew Zwicker aboard NASA's 727.
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"It was amazing," says Zwicker of the 90-minute flight. "It made me want to be an astronaut. The only other way to get data for our experiment is to go up to the space station. The NASA zero gravity flight creates the same conditions."

Team member Aliya Merali will work with Zwicker this summer analyzing data from the experiment. "Performing a physics experiment in microgravity is extremely difficult, mainly because it' so hard for the scientists to move around," Zwicker says. He and the seven students spent June 3 through 12 in Houston, training and preparing for the flight before taking their science experiment aboard the 727.

In 2008, the first Team DPX - comprised only of students - boarded a DC-9. This year, NASA invited Zwicker, who was one of the mentors for both teams, to join the students. The 2009 team - including several additional students - took aboard a second dusty plasma experiment, as well as upgraded equipment and additional cameras.

Zwicker, a South Brunswick Township resident, wrote a daily blog about his experiences
(http://science-edumacation.blogspot.com/).

"...When we went into zero-g, we all held onto our box [containing the experiment], which was bolted down to the floor. Our bodies, however, lifted off and so we were all at a 45^o angle up, with our feet higher than our heads, our sneakers pressing against the back wall holding us in that position," he says on the blog. "We had a small computer monitor attached to the top of our box and I floated above it, looking down for the clouds [plasma dust clouds]."

TCNJ team members include: Chris Conniff, Darrick Jones, Russ Jones, Aliya Merali, Justin Nieusma, Chaz Ruggieri, and Rachel Sherman. Nieusma and Sherman also participated last year.

"The team collected excellent data, with a variety of interesting phenomena to study," Zwicker says.

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