To all SSEP Mission 18 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 18 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 38 communities across the U.S., Canada and Ukraine that just started SSEP Mission 18 to ISS on September 1, 2023. 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 18 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 Wednesday, September 27, 2023. (extended to allow for more student replies)
From Dr. Jeff Goldstein, Center Director, NCESSE –
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 18, 2023, 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 27, 2023.
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, and the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory, are National Partners on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.
I think if I weigh 130 on Earth that in space I think my weight will go down when I am in space because of the loss of gravity.
if i weigh 150 on earth i think it would go down fity or sixty pounds due to no gravity
I think that you will weight 130 because the earths gravity will have less pull the higher you go.
I think that you will weigh 145 lbs because the gravity will be a little bit weaker than it would be on ground level.
I think the weight would be the same because your weight does not change because of where you stand it matters more about the force of gravity which is the same in the bathroom and on top of the mountain.
You would be 130 Ilbs because there will be no gravitational pull towards you’re body anymore.Therefore the only thing giving you more weight is the gravitational pull of the earth.
I don’t think your weight will change because you weigh the same
I think I would weigh half of what I weigh on earth. This is because there is less gravity in space than their is on Earth.
Your weight wouldnt change because you are still in earths gravity.
i think youll weigh 120 pounds because youre still on solid land which is connected to earth and the space shutte is not. so therefore i think you’ll still have that much weight as long as youre on earth.
I think you would be lighter but Id say about 120lbs on the top of your mountain. Gravity is weaker on the mountain top but weight goes lighter not mass.
I think you would weigh the same because the only thing that changes is the amount of gravity there is in space. The microgravity in space is what makes you feel weightless.
I think that your weight would be only a little bit less maybe 130-145 pounds because the gravity in space is only slightly weaker than the one on earth so there is less of a gravitational pull in your body.
Your weight would be the exact same because you still have weight.The reason a think this is because the earth is gravity is still affecting you but it’s slightly weaker because youre
so high up in the moutain.
I think you will weight 110 pounds because gravity is much more stronger on earth and much more weaker in space. Plus you’re moving more away from earth.
If you weight 150 lbs in Earth, you would definitely weight less on the top at your mountain because the gravity at the top of the mountain would be weaker than the gravity on Earth.
you will weigh the same because you are still at the earth’s surface and you are still going to get pulled down due to the gravitational pull of the earth
I think 120 because the gravity is only slightly weaker than on Earth.
If you weigh 130 lbs on space I think there will be no gravity to pull your body. The only thing giving you more weight is the gravity that pull you of the earth.
You would be at least 120 pounds or more because gravity is pulling you down but is weaker than in the bathroom cause of how high you are.
I think you would weight 125 lbs because as you start going higher into space the gravity starts getting weaker which makes you weight less that you do on earth.
I think you weigh 140 because its maybe a bit lighter there, but you are still on the Earth’s gravitational pull.
I think that you would wheigh 100 lbs its not zero becsause youre not fully in space where theres zero gravity.
He weights the same since wightlessness is only that it feels thaat way since there is less graviy higher up an it dosn’t make u lose wight.
i think he will weigh 120 lbs because the higher and higher into space you get the gravity will get weaker and weaker, and i don’t think it will be able to hold him up.
i think he would weigh about 110 pounds because as the get higher on the mountain the gravity started to get weaker and you will weigh less.
I think you would weigh at least 135 pounds because everything is different from space and earth which means you would have to be at least 135 punds.
I think you will weigh 132 lbs because when you go more higher into space, gravity gets weaker because of how you weight less on earth.
I believe he weighs 135 lbs because the more you go up the less you weigh.
I think you would weigh 135 lbs because the higher up you go into space the gravity becomes less present. Which means you will weigh less because the gravity isn’t that strong like how it was on Earth.
I think you would weigh 110-120 lbs because when you get closer to space you start to get lighter.
My guess for your weight at space is half of your weight on earth so 75 pounds.
I think your weight will be way lower do to the affects of micogravity now I don’t know how much you would way exactly but I would guess less then 1 gram
i think that u would weigh around 127 lbs because once u go into space there is no gravity so it makes u weigh even less by the time you arrive to space.
i think you would weigh the same because your still on earths surface and the gravity doesn’t change until you get out the atmosphere.
I think you would be 125 because the attitude in space is different because of all the body changing in space but also how the weight is different in earth so the mountain you would have to be 125
I think you would weigh 130 pounds because the no gravity would make you feel lighter and weaker.
I think he would weigh the same because in a endless falling elevator you would float but you would still have the same weight. In a spacestion you are just falling into earth barley missing it and going around it again and barley missing it. That is what keeps you floating just like a endless falling elevator but you would still have the same weight.
I think that your weight would be approximately 110 or lower like 90. Because you are very far and the gravity will be weaker and will make you light.
i think that u would weigh around 127 lbs because once u go into space there is no gravity so it makes u weigh even less by the time you arrive to space.
i think that it would be 138 lbs because the higher up you go to space the more the gravity is weak so it would make you weigh less
If you weighed 150 at your home You would weigh around 120-130 my guess is you will weigh 120-125 because the gravity on earth is stronger than the Mountain and since your so high up on it the gravity will be a lot weaker since your so high up
If he weighed 150 at home he would weigh about 120 because the gravity lessens as he goes more up leaving him to lose more weight.
I think you would weigh a little bit less because you would be in the state of weightless because gravity is different in microgravity than how it is on earth.
I think you would weigh 300 pounds, why? Well simply because gravity is much more stronger up there so i think you would weigh times 2 your weight right now.
If you weigh 150 lbs at home, I think you will weigh about 120 lbs or less because space has weaker gravity than earth so it will make you weigh less on the mountain.
If you weigh 150 pounds on the scale you will be the same amount of weight if you were on the peak of the mountain because like the falling elivitor you are the same weight your js falling
if i weigh 150 lbs here on earth i think i would weigh 110 lbs on top of the mountain because down below i am closer to gravity and at higher altitudes i am not.
I think you would weigh about 145 pounds at the top of the mountain because the gravity on the mountain will get weaker because you are higher than the surface of the earth.
If you weigh 150 when you stand on a bathroom scale, I think you would weigh around 90-100 pounds. I say this because gravity on the mountain would make you feel lighter because your about to reach space.
i think you will weigh 124 pounds because the higher you will go the less the gravity has of the altitude to be pulling you towards them the face of the earth so resulting you to weigh less because you the same force that the astronauts have since they have a spaceship to be going at something miles per hour