Note that this Challenge is covered as part of the program start Skype for your community’s Local Team of Mission 11 educators. These Skypes for the Mission 11 communities are being conducted by SSEP National Program Director Dr. Jeff Goldstein through Wednesday, September 21, 2016.
This blog post is for teachers in the 21 communities across the U.S. and Canada that just started SSEP Mission 11 to ISS. You are invited to use this Challenge with your students to get them thinking about the concept of microgravity (the technical name for the phenomenon of ‘weightlessness’). As part of this Challenge, students are asked to submit what they think is an answer in the ‘Leave a Reply’ section below. Please encourage your students to submit answers, so that all students visiting this blog post can see what other Mission 11 students across the U.S. and Canada are thinking. Let’s use this blog post as a social media platform for sharing thoughts about microgravity.
The solution to the Challenge will be posted to this SSEP National Blog on Wednesday, September 21, 2016.
I’ve heard a lot about this weightlessness stuff, with astronauts having a great time floating around in space. It’s like they weigh nothing at all. So I wanted to find out first hand what’s going on up there. Since they don’t have a spare seat on the next flight to low Earth orbit (at least not yet), I looked far and wide to find an amazingly tall mountain whose peak rises to the Space Station’s altitude in orbit so I could climb up and see for myself.
Station orbits the Earth close to 260 miles (420 km) above sea level, and, by the way, crew and station are zipping along at 4.7 MILES PER SECOND (7.6 km/sec) relative to you sitting there at your computer. Bam. The Station just moved 4.7 miles. Really.
It took some Googling, but I found that really tall mountain! See my mountain in the picture? It accidentally got captured in an old Space Shuttle photo. Mt. Everest is only 5.5 miles (8.8 km) high. MY mountain (Jeff’s Peak) is 260 miles (420 km) high. I found it south of the Land of Make-Believe, down a not too well traveled path. Still, you’d think someone would have noticed it since it’s 47 times higher than Mt. Everest. (Have you ever heard of Jeff’s peak? No? See, nobody knows about it!)
So this week, I’m going to take the time to climb my mountain, and in my hand is my trusty bathroom scale, spring-loaded and guaranteed to be accurate at any altitude. I’ll camp out at the top, and I’ll wait until Space Station flies right by my mountain, so I can look in the windows and see if those lucky astronauts are weightless and floating around.
Here now the challenge—
As soon as I confirm they’re weightless in the Space Station, I’ll step on my bathroom scale to see my weight. If I weigh say 150 lbs when I’m standing on my scale in my bathroom at home, what will I weigh on top of my mountain?
Hint: You don’t actually need to calculate my weight. I’ll do that in the Solution to the Challenge. Your assignment—if you decide to accept it—is to guess what you think I’ll weigh and why. Hmmmm, lots of possibilities.
Submit your guesses below in the ‘Leave a Reply’ section, and remember to include why you think your guess is correct. Students of ALL ages are welcome to post a guess.
I’ll even give you a week to noodle on this in class, and at home with your parents. I’ll post the answer next Wednesday, September 21, 2016, right here at the SSEP National Blog. See you then, and good luck noodling!
Also – if you want to follow along with the latest news from the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), you are invited to subscribe to the SSEP National Blog at the bottom of the right column.
[**Metric system note: in the metric system, weight is measured in Newtons (N). 150 lbs is equivalent to 667 Newtons, which is the weight of a 68 kg mass at Earth’s surface.]
The solution to this challenge was posted here on September 21, 2016.
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S., and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with NanoRacks LLC, working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. SSEP is the first pre-college STEM education program that is both a U.S. national initiative and implemented as an on-orbit commercial space venture.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and Subaru of America, Inc., are U.S. National Partners on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. Magellan Aerospace is a Canadian National Partner on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.
Congratulations Jeff and all the participating students!! How lucky you are to have this program where you can actually perform Science experiments in Space. Something we couldn’t have even dreamed of when I was in school!
Use this experience to continue a life long interest in Science, just as I have. We need INFORMED Science people now more than ever!!!
Best of luck to all of you!!
Weight would be approximately the same (150lbs). The reason the astronauts are feeling weightless is because they are in free fall, however, since they are moving horizontally incredibly fast, they miss the earth as they fall. Since you are not moving, you feel the same weight.
Possible, but small variation could be either: less weight, due to greater distance from Earths center, or greater weight, because the very large mass of Jeff’s peak would be pulling you towards it.
I think you would weight 14 lbs.
Hello from Waterford Twp., NJ…an astronaut’s weight is roughly 16% of what is on Earth.
I beilive that if you are 420km above sea level your weight will decrease a lot… not sure how much though.
I think that their weight will get lighter at the top of the mountain because they are farther away from the Earth’s center, which makes the force of gravity lessen due to the increased distance.
I think that you would be almost weightless but you would still weigh a bit because you still wouldn’t be out of the atmosphere. (15lbs)
133 lbs. less because the gravitational force has become weaker.
I think you`ll weight less the higher you get- probably not much of a difference due to the distance being quite small compared to something like the moon or sun.
His weight will be close to nothing since our atmosphere doesn’t reach up to 420 km high leaving him far out in space with no gravity holding his weight down.
when a person is on a mountain he/she will weigh more then the person in the ISS.because
there is gravity on the mountain and in space/ISS there is no gravity.
I thought that in space the microgravity will make you shrink but then a friend made me think about it then I changed my mind and said that it will make you taller.
I think that he won’t get to see his weight because he has no gravity on earth space a all even if he is on the mountain
I believe that your weight would be slightly lighter because since you are on top of a mountain and you are near the space atmosphere your weight would slightly decrease.
You would stay the same weight from if you are on earth on a bathroom scale compared to you being on the top of a mountain the only thing that would change is the height.
I think I would not be the same weight because your weight less in space there is no gravity at all so you would not feel all the weight that you would feel standing on top of a mountain.
I think you will weigh about 86lbs if you were 150lbs because u will get lighter because your in space but you still have gravity pulling you down because if it wasn’t the Moutan wouldn’t be there and the rocks would have floated away.
If I am on top of a mountain that is at the same altitude as the International Space Station, I will weigh the same. This is because we are at the same altitude which means the same distance from the core of the earth, meaning that there is the same gravitational pull. One Question: If all of the solar panels on the International Space Station were to break would it be able to keep it’s altitude.
I think he is going to weight 0.05
I think your not gonna weigh the same. Because there is no gravity so your not gonna feel the way you feel on earth right now. and every thing goes faster on the earth Than space.
I think you might weigh about 1/4 of his actual weight because hes in space and theres gonna be no gravity pulling down on you
i think that the person will stay the same weight because even though he is near the edge of the atmosphere that edge of the atmosphere is strong enough to pull a meteorite down to earth so i do not see why it can hold a person so that is why i do not think they will lose weight
I think if you use a bathroom scale on the top of a mountain you will be heavier and it will be hard for you to breath. We are not like the astronauts who are floting in space without gravity.
I think that the person will still be the same weight as he is off of the mountain. He will not lose weight because he is higher up to the atmosphere so it will pushing him down even more then it was when he was off the mountain
I think that you will weigh less because it is in outer space and there is no gravity in space so maybe you will become lighter to like float around like they do in the space craft. But I also think that you will weigh the same because it has the same altitude as the earth because the mountain is still on earth. But i don’t think it will madder about your weight in space.
i don;t think it will madder in space because their is no gravity and it doesn’t mean anything.
I think that he would weigh 135 pounds in space.
You would weigh the same
I think he will weigh half of what he does on earth.
I think you would roughly weigh 16 pounds
he will weigh 5 pounds
Jeff is going to weigh 0 pounds.
he will weigh 20 pounds
He will weigh the exact same on Jeff’s Peak than on the ground. He is not far enough into space to become weightless.
35 LBS he will way..
He will weigh nothing because there is not any gravity.
about 5 punds becuse of the gravity.
I think he will weigh nothing because the is no weight in space.
He will weigh the almost the same on earth as in space because he can still walk.
He will weigh nothing because the is not any gravity.
I think he would be 20 pounds because he has to weigh at least some pounds to move
he will weigh 0 lbs.
I think it will matter he will be light and weigh 0 lbs
you will weight a little lighter becuase you are not directley on the ground Preston Mento
he will weigh 0.15 pounds
I think he will weigh nothing because in space there is no gravity
I think he will wight 0lbs
i think he will be 0.15 pounds
I believe that he won’t weigh much less than 150 pounds. He will most likely weigh about 135 pounds.
he will weigh 0 pounds because he will not be able to put his weight on the ground
i think he is going to be 0.4
I think 0 pounds