To all SSEP Mission 16 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. 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 16 to ISS Community Program Directors: this Challenge is covered as part of the program start Professional Development videoconference for your community’s Local Team of educators. These videoconferences are being conducted by SSEP National Program Director Dr. Jeff Goldstein.
This blog post is for teachers in the 24 communities across the U.S., Canada and Ukraine that just started SSEP Mission 16 to ISS on September 1, 2021. 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 16 students across the U.S., Canada, and Ukraine 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 20, 2021.
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. So I’m going to look in that window really really fast!
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! They seem to have no gravity at all! They’re not being pulled down to the floor – in fact there doesn’t seem to be a floor … or a ceiling!
On top of my mountain, at the exact same altitude above Earth as the astronauts (I’m at the exact same location in space as they are), 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 anything. Your assignment—if you decide to accept it—is to just 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 Monday, September 20, 2021, right here at the SSEP National Blog. See you then, and good luck noodling!
Also – if you want to get an email notification when that Blog Post is up, and 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 20, 2021.
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, which is 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.
if you weigh 150 pounds on earth then in space I think you would weigh 0 pounds in space
You will weigh 150 pounds because it does not matter if you are in space or not you will always be 150 since it doesn’t affect your weight.
You will be lighter on the top of the mountain because when you higher up into the atmosphere, you feel a feeling of free falling and will be lighter.
You would only weigh very slightly more at sea level than at the top of a mountain, not enough for you to notice, but a measurable amount. The higher the mountain gets, the less you weigh.
they would weigh nothing because they have left the earths atmosphere and are in space.
you will weigh the same because your just higher up on a mountain the gravity isnt changing and you havent left the atmosphere. But if you were in space you would sill weight 150 pounds you might think that you are wightless because of the gravity but you really arent.
If you are standing on top of a mountain on a scale and you weighed yourself, you would only weigh a little less than you would on the ground.
The force of gravity is the only force acting upon your body, and there are no external objects touching your body and exerting a force, therefore, you would experience a weightless sensation and weigh as much as you always do, yet you would not have any sensation of your weight.
I think you will weigh about 1/3 of what you way on Earth. I think this because you are floating a bit and putting less pressure on the scale making you lighter.
I think a 150 pound person would weigh about 135 pounds because at a really high altitude there is less gravity.
i think you would weigh less because your putting less pressure on the scale because your like kinda floating so you would weigh less.
i think you will weigh the same because you have not left earth
i think u would way less because your not putting a lot of pressure on the scale and when ur not putting a lot of pressure on the scale it wont read as much weight.
You would weigh the same just feel lighter and the gravity is different
I think you will way less because your not putting as much pressure as u usually would so the scale would read your weight differently because there’s not as much pressure .,
I think you will way same because you are still on flat surface and gravity has not changed.
I think you would be way lighter because you feel like you are free falling when high up and you will put less pressure on the plate
I think you will weigh the same because you are on a flat surface and the gravity is the same.
I think you will weigh less on the mountain and more on ground because when you are higher up it is like you are floating so it will make you lighter.
you would be much lighter if you were to stand on a mountain as on ground you would weigh more.
You will weigh the same amount because you aren’t leaving the atmosphere. Your still on a mountain on earth.
i think you will weigh the same because you are on a flat surface and that gravity has not changed
I think you will weigh less on a mountain then on the ground because when you are higher up you will feel like you are floating and that makes you lighter.
You will weigh the same because you aren’t leaving the atmosphere you are on a mountain that is on earth.
If you way 150 pounds on earth in space you would still weigh 150 pounds
Your weight wont change because you are not moving or free falling, you are just higher.
`You will only weigh a tiny little bit more. Because if you went on a scale in your bathroom and then on a mountain and subtracted the amounts of how much you weighed both times you would be lighter by the tiniest amount
You would still weigh the same amount because you are still on earth with the same gravity laws
If you weight 150 on the ground and your on top of your mountain your weight wont change only if you are free falling off the mountain.
Your weight wont change it will stay 150 but your mass will change.
you will be 150 does not matter in space
You weigh wont change because just cause your just higher up from the ground does mean not free falling Which is why your weigh wont change.
You will be lighter in space because when your in space there is less gravity putting you in free falling
If you weigh 146 pounds on earth then you still weight 146 pounds
If you weigh 120 pounds on earth you would weigh 120 pounds in space. Your weight won’t change because you are not moving or free falling, you are just higher.
The weight would be less because you are surpassed the atmosphere so you would weight 30% less
I think that you will weight less because you are putting less pressure on the floor because of microgravity.
I think if you weighed 150 pounds on Earth, you would only weigh 1/3 less than you would in space than you would on Earth.
I think you will weigh very light because of gravity. Gravity is the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward any other physical body having mass. I think that your weight on earth will decrease and your weight will become lighter.
If you are standing on top of a mountain on a scale and you weighed yourself, you would only weigh a little less than you would on the ground.
If you are 150 pounds in space it wont matter because there is no gravity in space.
I think that when you are on the ground standing on a scale weighing 150 pounds, and when you are on a mountain top I think that you would way less because you are higher into the air where gravity is not that much.
You would weigh the same just feel lighter because there is no gravity in the atmosphere that is why you jump or float the way you do in space
I think if you are 150 pounds on a scale on the ground then when you are on top of the mountain top you will maybe weigh less because the gravity is less up in the sky.
You will be lighter because there is less gravity in space making it seem like you are free falling.
I think you would way less as you climb the mountain, because as you get further away from earth, you get further away from gravity, making you weightless, because less gravity is pulling you to the thing your measuring your weight on.
you will be lighter on top of a mountain because when you are higher up you are ligheter
I think that you would weigh lighter because of how high the atmosphere
Since your 150 pounds at your house I think you would be half you weight (75 lbs). This is because while your not expirencing weightless (not freefalling) and your far away from the main part of the atmosphere.
If I weigh 150 pounds it wouldn’t matter because there’s no gravity in space.