To all SSEP Mission 12 student microgravity researchers, just before his return to Earth on Soyuz 33S, on May 13, 2013, Expedition 35 International Space Station Commander and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield – the first Canadian to walk in space –released this video. Watch Chris (and his guitar) and see what weightlessness looks like. We are honored that we can share this with our two SSEP Canadian Communities participating in Mission 12 to ISS – School District #68 Nanaimo, British Columbia, and Winnipeg School Division, Manitoba. When watching this movie you’re invited to go to full screen on your computer and turn up the volume – maybe even project it on a large screen in a classroom and turn off the lights.
To all SSEP Mission 12 to ISS Community Program Directors: this Challenge is covered as part of the program start Skype for your community’s Local Team of Mission 12 educators. These Skypes for the Mission 12 communities are being conducted by SSEP National Program Director Dr. Jeff Goldstein through Friday, September 22, 2017.
This blog post is for teachers in the 31 communities across the U.S. and Canada that just started SSEP Mission 12 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 12 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 Monday, September 25, 2017.
I’ve heard a lot about this weightlessness stuff, with astronauts having a great time floating around in space. I’ve even seen astronauts on YouTube videos and in movies (like Chris above), and they’re floating as if they weigh nothing at all. It just seems like maybe there is no gravity in space.
I really need to find out 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’m going to look far and wide to find an amazingly tall mountain whose peak rises to the Space Station’s altitude in orbit. My plan is to climb to the top of this mountain, look really fast in the big window on the Space Station (it’s called the cupola) as Station flies by my face, and see for myself if they are floating around in there.
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.
OK, 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 by, so I can look in the window and see if those lucky astronauts are weightless and floating around.
Here now the challenge to YOU—
So here I am on the top of my mountain, and the Space Station just flew by – they WERE floating around, and appeared totally weightless in the Space Station, just like Chris in the video above!! OK, so here I am on top of my mountain, at the exact same altitude above Earth as they are, and now, I 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 few days to noodle on this in class, and maybe at home with your parents. I’ll post the answer this Monday, September 18, 2017, 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 will be posted here on September 25, 2017.
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 DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, which are 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.
The weight on the International Space Station in micro-gravity would be 135.99 pounds which is equivalent to 61.2 kgs. – on the International Space Station.
This is due to the fact that 100 pounds on the Earth would be equivalent to 90 pounds on the International Space Station and in micro-gravity.
I think he will weight 135 becuse if you multiply 150 and 0 .9 so i got 135
If you weigh 150 lbs on your scale and you climb a mountain you wiil weigh proximently 86 lbs beacause your higher in the atmosphere.
On top of the moutain I think he would way the same just because he is higher than when he was at his house the effect of gravity still effected him so wouldn’t it still effect him even if he is higher than his house.All in all this is why I think he would weight the same.
I believe he weight would be 135 pounds. I believe that because I had remembered that your weight on the ISS would be 10% less than on earth, so that would mean you would have to do 0.90×150 to get your answer of 135. So you would weight 135 pounds.
I think Jeff would weigh the same because he is still on the ground.
I think that Jeff will weigh the same as he will on the ground, I think this because I think that the astronuts are falling and I think that Jeff is not falling.
I believe there is 50 because i just subtracted 100 pounds
I think that Jeff will weigh the same as he will on the ground, I think this because I think that the astronuts are falling and I think that Jeff is not falling.
I hypothesize that the guy’s weight on his mountain is 104 because because the ISS has 90% of Earth’s gravity, so 150x.90=104.0. That is why I believe that the guy weighs 104 pounds on his mountain
If he ways 150 pounds on earth, i beleive that on top of that mountain, he will way 25 pounds because if the internationl space station is 260 miles high, and the mountain is 260 miles high, so they are at the same level. So i beleive that h ould way about 25pounds in zero gravity
I believe that the wieght on his mountan is 104 pounds because the ISS has 90% of earths gravity so 150x.90 is 104. That is why I believe that the guy wieghs 104 pounds on the mountain.
I believe he would weigh 75 pounds because I think that he would be half of his weight at regular altitude.
I think that your weight will be the same because your are standing on your montain and they are falling so they are “floating” but they are falling and your standing.
I believe that he would weigh 150 pounds because he hasn’t yet left the Earth’s atmosphere so he can’t yet experience weight lessness.
When you go on the mountain, I think that you will still weigh the same. This is my answer because you are pretending to be on a fake mountain.
If you weigh150 pounds on the ground you would be the same weigh because the gravity doesn’t do anything except it pulls you down, but he is also not out of the atmosphere so he wouldn’t feel the weightlessness.
I think he would stay the same weigh because he is on the same planet in space.
I hypothesize that his weight will not change because the spaceship is not in Earth’s atmosphere so it can experience weightlessness and is still in the Earth’s atmosphere so gravity is pulling it down.
When you go on top of the mountain I think you will weigh a little less. This is my answer because evan though your not floating there is still microgravity. There is still microgravity because your basicly in space at the same altitude as the ISS, but your not floating because the ISS is actualy falling around the earth and when you on the mountain your not falling. This is why my answer is that he will weigh less on the mountain.
In our opinion, we think that he weighs around 20 pounds.
If he weighs 150 pounds on a scale at home he would weigh less on his made up mountain because he said it reaches to the space station.
I think that his weight will stay the same because the space craft is out of Earths atmospere so it can experience weightllessness and the gravity from the mountain is keeping him from becoming weightless.
In my opinion he would be 95 pounds because I subtracted 150 and 55 and that gave me 95.
He will wil be half of his whight because he is high up.
If you weigh 150 lbs when I’m standing on my scale in my bathroom at home, I will weigh on top of my mountain is I think 75 pounds because I think they will lose half of there weight because there heigher than Earth so they dont have a lot of the gravity pulling them down so I think he would lose half of his weght.
If you weigh 150 pounds in your bathroom you would weight 75 pounds on your mountain because I think the astronauts are at least half their weight and your mountain is close so I think you are 75 pounds.
He will weigh the same, as he is still in on the ground and not in space. The gravity doesn’t change fi you’re on a mountain, but it would change if it’s in space.
I think that they will weigh the same because they are still on earth
He might weight aprox. 10 pounds because he is in a microgravity and they still weight something.
I believe he will weigh 50 the same because he may see weightless, but he’s not.
I believe he will weigh the same amout because he may seem weightless but he still will weigh the same.
He is still in the atmosphere but the gravity will still not be the same because he is so high up
I think he will weigh half because he just went into space now he is going on the ground
I believe he will weigh the same because he is still on the ground not up in space.
I think that he wil way the same because he is still on the planet and is not in space yet.
We think that his weight will stay the same
The weight will change most likely because if your on the top your touching zero gravity but, you are still touching gravity to so lets say if you were 100 pounds in weight than you would weigh 60 or 70 is what I assume
His body itself will still weigh the same however the gravitational pull will be different so i believe he will weigh about 2 and 1/2 pounds
He will weigh the same, because he is still on the ground. So that means gravity dosent change.
I think that he will weigh half of he weigh now.
I think he weight have his size because he just went into space and he is coming back on the ground so he will weight 75 pounds
We thik his weight will be the same
On the top of the mountain he will weigh the same because its the same gravity on earth and in space theres no gravity.
He will be 150 the same because you seem weightless, but your not weightless.
I thik he will weigh 0 pounds because the mawtin will leave earth’s atmosphere and there will be no gravity.
In my opinion he porbably be half of his pound because in space it looks as if you wieght half of your pounds so if your 150 you would be 125 pounds.
I think he will stay the same becuase he is not in space yet and hi swieght doemt change the gravity does
I think he would weigh the same because he is still on earth.
I think he would be 0 pounds because he is next to astronauts who are weightless
I think he will way 50 pounds because he is getting lifted up by gravity. What I did was 150-100 and got 50 pounds.