8 minutes of fame

We got our 8 minutes of fame today when the Norwegian popular science TV show aired the story they have been making about us. The clip may be seen at http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/196099.

Flight times are finally up!

At long last we know what group we will be in! We are in the first batch of experiments which means that we will go to Bordeaux in the time between August 30th and September 8th. If nothing has been altered since May this will be our schedule:

August 30th: Arrival to NOVESPACE, Bordeaux.
August 31st: Loading of experiments into the A300 Zero-G.
September 1st: Testing of the experiments inside the aircraft.
September 4th: Safety briefings and flight suit delivery.
September 5th: Flight number 1!
September 6th: Flight number 2 and unloading of experiments.

It seems we will have som time off as well! I heard the beach in Bordeaux is really nice!

Torbjørn has a new job!

Torbjørn has gotten a space job! In the coming years he will work for Andøya Rocket Range, he will make sure the Norwegian student satellite projects go smoothly. We congratulate!

Airbus A300 Zero-G

The aircraft that will take us into weightlessness is a great big plane called the A300 Zero-G. It is one of the very first Airbus A300 passenger planes - it was originally built as a test aircraft. It has never been certified for passenger flight, so each flight is considered a test flight. The photo shows the A300 Zero-G just before the "injection" phase where the Earth's gravity is nullified by the parabolic trajectory of the plane.

A Celebrity Guest

Who is this woman, you might ask - at least if you don't watch "Schrödingers Cat." This is Gry Beate Molvær and she will fly with us as our team journalist. We are a bit honored and very happy to have Norway's most famous science journalist with us.

Tekna did a long interview with her back in 2003.

Arabidopsis Thaliana

The plant whose seeds we will primarily use is called Arabidopsis Thaliana, Thale Cress, Mouse-Ear Cress and/or Vårskrinneblom. It is related to cabbage and mustard plants. The plant seeds are tiny, the diameter is less than 1 mm.

The plant is used extensively in biology experiments due to its short generation timespan (6 weeks) and because the genome is small and reasonably well known. (Wikipedia)

New Rack design

Here is our new rack design. The microscope is covered by a "tent" made out of cloth of preferably transparent plastic of some sort. This fulfills the requirement that we seal of any point at which a water leak could occur. The electrical circuitry is still not drawn.
This links to a complete (.jpg) schematic.

The rack will be installed along one side wall of the aircraft cabin.

Color dye tests

Basit and I tested the prototype today, we added green food colour to the injected water. It is obvious that the entire polypropylene felt is not wetted in the current construction. Perhaps we will need a smaller diameter of the felt, we are considering reducing the diameter of the felt from 2.5mm to 2mm. We got some great video with the HDV camera (including Basit's nose), Basit can hopefully add some stills soon!