MIDDLETOWN -- A week from now, Brown University student Kellie DiPalma will be flying above the Gulf of Mexico and testing liquids while hovering at zero gravity. It's where she's always wanted to be.
DiPalma, a rising senior who will be traveling with the Brown Space Club to the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas, to conduct experiments in reduced gravity, has wanted to explore space since she was a child.
"So far, it's the closest you can get to experience what it's like to be a real astronaut," DiPalma, of Middletown, said of the trip.
Through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, DiPalma, 20, and four members of the Brown Space Club will conduct experiments while aboard the C-9, a 20-person aircraft that will fly 30 parabolic, or wave-like, maneuvers over the Gulf of Mexico.
During the hour-long flights, the students will experience the crushing forces of hyper gravity -- nearly twice the force of earth's gravity -- as the plane nears the top of the wave, as well as the weightlessness of zero gravity when the plane descends toward earth.
DiPalma's team was one of 65 chosen from schools across the country to participate in the program. Their four-part experiment involves testing behaviors of water when samples are partially inside tubes, mixed with oil, and shot in intersecting streams while under the different gravitational forces.
The Brown Space Club, which participated in the program in 2004, 2003 and 2002, began brainstorming ideas for the experiment last year. After they were notified in January that the students would be going to Houston, the students built a structure housing the experiment that will be placed on the aircraft, and conducted preliminary tests in normal gravity.
While in Houston during the 10-day trip, the Brown team will undergo physical training in a hyperbolic chamber, tour the NASA headquarters, learn about space exploration, attend social events, and explore Houston.
DiPalma says she's looking forward to seeing the agency's neutral-buoyancy lab, a tank containing millions of gallons of water that astronauts use to simulate a zero-gravity environment.
"I'm definitely excited about that," said DiPalma, who is currently working in a summer internship as a software engineer at the Raytheon Co.
Town Councilman Louis DiPalma, Kellie's father, says the program is a wonderful way to get students interested in careers involving math and science.
Being in a microgravity environment is a thrill in itself, he said, adding, "I wish I was going."
