To All Student Researchers Now Engaged in SSEP Mission 14 to ISS – A Challenge for the Start of Program: Understanding Weightlessness – You Want Me to Take a Bathroom Scale Where?


To all SSEP Mission 14 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 14 to ISS – Halifax Regional Centre for Education, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Edmonton Public School Board, Edmonton, Alberta. 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 14 to ISS Community Program Directors: this Challenge is covered as part of the program start Skype for your community’s Local Team of Mission 14 educators. These Skypes are being conducted by SSEP National Program Director Dr. Jeff Goldstein through Friday, September 27, 2019.

This blog post is for teachers in the 33 communities across the U.S., Canada, and Brazil that just started SSEP Mission 14 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 14 students across the U.S., Canada, and Brazil 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, October 2, 2019. 

 

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 just 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 the astronauts are floating around.

The Space Station orbits the Earth close to 260 miles (420 km) above sea level, so that’s how high my mountain needs to be. 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 the 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 – Hey! They WERE floating around, and appeared totally weightless, just like Chris in the video above! On top of my mountain, at the exact same altitude above Earth as the astronauts, I now 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 next Tuesday, October 1, 2019, 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 October 2, 2019.

 


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 MuseumCenter 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.

73 Responses to To All Student Researchers Now Engaged in SSEP Mission 14 to ISS – A Challenge for the Start of Program: Understanding Weightlessness – You Want Me to Take a Bathroom Scale Where?

  1. Anonymous September 26, 2019 at 3:44 pm #

    I think you would have the same weight because you are still on the Earth.

  2. Jeff Goldstein September 26, 2019 at 3:53 pm #

    That’s a fine answer! Anyone else have some ideas?

  3. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 11:19 am #

    I think you would weigh a bit less, say 140 lbs, because you are farther away from the ground and gravity is weaker at that altitude.

  4. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 11:40 am #

    I believe that you would weigh less since the center of gravity of Earth is farther away from which would pull you with less force.

  5. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 12:17 pm #

    you will not change it will be the same weight because your still on earth

  6. CM September 27, 2019 at 12:18 pm #

    I believe he will weigh less 🙂 bc the gravity is not as strong

  7. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 12:18 pm #

    I think you will weigh less because your body isn’t used to being in space and your body will change.

  8. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 12:18 pm #

    You would weigh less on top of the mountain because you are further away from the center of the earth

  9. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 12:19 pm #

    you will weight less because you on a mountain and theres less gravity pulling you down than on level ground

  10. CG September 27, 2019 at 12:21 pm #

    I think he will weigh 10-20 pounds less because the air is thinner and he is closer to space. So? probably 130lbs??

  11. qt September 27, 2019 at 12:22 pm #

    i believe you would be the same weight cause because the gravity is still pulling your weight
    down.

  12. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 12:22 pm #

    I think that you would way less because you are higher up the sky so you are farther than the earth. Which is less force.

  13. Lareina September 27, 2019 at 12:22 pm #

    I think he would weigh like 100, because he’s almost close to the atmosphere and there isn’t that much weight up there.

  14. QT September 27, 2019 at 12:23 pm #

    i believe you would be the same weight cause because the gravity is still pulling your weight
    down and at the same rate

  15. wessy bod September 27, 2019 at 12:23 pm #

    I believe that you would weigh less because the higher the altitude the more you’re weight drops because of the decrease in gravity

  16. Kyra RoseC: September 27, 2019 at 12:24 pm #

    I think you will way at least 145 lbs when your standing on top of the mountain on your scale because the closer you are to the Earths center you’ll weigh more.

  17. Conner September 27, 2019 at 12:24 pm #

    I think you would say you would either be less or stay somewhat the same because the altitude would be weak .

  18. MB September 27, 2019 at 12:27 pm #

    i’d say that you would be the same weight well you are still on earth.

  19. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 1:22 pm #

    I feel like it depends on how big or narrow the peak is, but I do think overall that you would weigh less. If the peak is bigger, you would weigh a bit more than if the peak is thinner, but you would still weigh less than 150 at sea level.

  20. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 1:30 pm #

    I think that you would weigh less because the higher you get the less gravity there is so, it would have less pressure on you and it would make you lighter. That’s also another reason why it hard to breathe the higher you climb a mountain.

  21. yeeyee September 27, 2019 at 1:57 pm #

    I think you would way less because you are farther away and the gravity is weaker. If you were closer to Earth’s core then you would weigh more.

  22. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 1:58 pm #

    i think that you would weigh less, say around 147 lbs because the gravitational pull would be less. since you,re further away from the earth

  23. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 1:58 pm #

    you would less then your body weight now because your farther away from earth

  24. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 2:01 pm #

    i feel like that you would weigh half of 150lbs because you are further away from the earth and when you are close to the earth the mass of you will increase

  25. Anonymous September 27, 2019 at 5:21 pm #

    I think you would weigh at least 150 lbs. You are standing on top of a massive mountain. It could increase earths mass, which could cause you to weigh more.

  26. Anonymous September 28, 2019 at 2:43 am #

    Weigh more because the extra mass of the mountain adds to the mass of the ideally spherical earth resulting in a larger overall mass pulling you down on the scale.

  27. Anonymous September 29, 2019 at 9:47 am #

    I think you will weigh much less because the gravitational pull of the earth is not as strong.

  28. Anonymous September 29, 2019 at 7:57 pm #

    gravity would be weaker and since weight is relative to grvity you would probably weigh 75 pounds assuming that you weigh 0.08 pounds less per 10000 feet above sea level but since it would probably change ever so slightly at inconsistent intervals it would be very diffucult to calculate but various other factors would play into the scales calculation so im going to say around 112 pounds with the other factors of presumably the clothing youd be wearing and possibly food and water mass.

  29. Anonymous September 29, 2019 at 8:09 pm #

    I think you will weigh a little more than 1/2 because the mountain will have enough gravity to pull you towards the ground, yet there will still be a force pulling you towards weightlessness.

  30. Anonymous September 29, 2019 at 8:17 pm #

    I think you would weigh less because you are further away from the gravitationnal of the earth and there is less pressure weighing u down but not the same as if you were on the space station because you are not in a “free fall” atmosphere

  31. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 8:35 am #

    I think he weighs 100 pounds because 260-150=110.

  32. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 8:36 am #

    I think he weights 270 pounds because there is no gravity in space and 150+120=270.

  33. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 8:37 am #

    I don’t think he will weigh anything because there is no gravity in space so he will just float around.

  34. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 8:38 am #

    He will weigh 0 pounds because he is the same height as the astronauts. They are floating because they have no weight.

  35. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 8:38 am #

    I think he will weigh 0 because 260 miles is in the middle of space.

  36. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 8:39 am #

    I think he will weigh 0 because when he stands on the scale, the scale will float away into space.

  37. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 8:40 am #

    My guess is 0 pounds. I’m not sure why, I just made a guess.

  38. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 8:40 am #

    I think he weighs nothing because there is no weight in space and the mountain is in space.

  39. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 9:51 am #

    I think he is going to weigh 0 pounds because the mountain is in space and in space there is microgravity.

  40. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 9:52 am #

    I think he will weigh 0 pounds because there is no gravity in space and his mountain is in space.

  41. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 9:52 am #

    I think he will weigh 37 pounds because in space you weigh 4 times less than your weight on Earth.

  42. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 9:53 am #

    I think he will weigh 0 pounds because microgravity is a force that makes you float. It’s like an imaginary force.

  43. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 9:54 am #

    I think he will weigh 2 pounds because he would have a spacesuit on and just because you are in space doesn’t mean you don’t weigh anything. You have to weigh something.

  44. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 9:55 am #

    I think he will weigh 52.5 pounds because half of his body is on Earth and half is in space.

  45. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 9:56 am #

    He will 1 pound because he is in space and on Earth at the same time. If he jumped high enough, he would weigh a negative number.

  46. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 9:57 am #

    I think he will weigh 0 pounds because space doesn’t have gravity so he will float. But you can’t go into space without a suit because there is no oxygen.

  47. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 9:58 am #

    I think he will weigh 0 pounds because he is out of the equator and he will weigh 0 pounds.

  48. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 10:45 am #

    I think he will weigh about 140 pounds because there will be a mix of gravity and microgravity.

  49. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 10:46 am #

    I think he will weigh 120 pounds because when he is on the scale he is up in space, so the scale might be floating.

  50. Anonymous September 30, 2019 at 10:47 am #

    I think he will weigh 115 because the higher you go, the less gravity there is.

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.