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It’s one big step for Alaska and one big drop for the Alaska Microgravity Team.

The team comprised of University of Alaska Fairbanks undergraduates was one of 40 chosen to fly on NASA’s reduced gravity aircraft, nicknamed the “vomit comet.” Team member Tess Caswell said this is the first team from Alaska to enter NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities program.

Other universities represented include Yale, Cornell and Brown. The Alaska team will be in Houston, Texas, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center from April 16-27 to do work suggested in its proposal, a study of how to direct small satellites in space. Casswell explains that because small satellites are only 10 centimeters on each side, there is no room for thrusters or any kind of rocket propulsion. With nothing in space for the satellites to push off against, the team is studying alternative methods for movement. The team will be studying lesser-known propulsion systems, such as magnetic torque coils that react with the Earth’s magnetic field when a current is passed through them and reaction wheels, which use the momentum of a disc rotating in one direction to rotate the satellite in the opposite direction.

According to team member Devin Hahne, the purpose of the experiments are to allow the satellite to point and focus on certain things.

“It’s about accuracy and stability,” Hahne said.

Small satellites are typically cheaper, quicker to build and can adapt better to new technology when compared with larger satellites. The team’s advisor, Denise Thorsen, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, said traditional satellites can take 10 years from planning to launch and cost around a million dollars. Because small satellites are cheaper, Thorsen said there is more room for experimentation and less risk aversion. Thorsen said on average, a small satellite costs less than $30,000 including developement, equipment and the manpower needed for construction. Hahne said the cheapest satellite built by the UAF team costs $600. The bare-bones satellite only has one motor and uses recycled parts. He also doesn’t include the cost of manpower in the final total.

“They do it because they’re having fun,” Thorsen said.

The team includes students Jesse Frey, Matthew Anctil and Lindsay Briggs. Thorsen said after a couple of years of talking about developing a small satellite program at UAF, the team’s trip to Houston is a big milestone for the development of the program.

“They are the people who are taking the first step,” Thorsen said.

Though Hahne and Caswell said they are excited about the flights, they are also excited about the youth outreach program.

“We want to show Alaskan students they can do cool things even though everything is far away,” Caswell said.

The team has a Web site, is working on educational videos, hosted an open house event and visited Woodriver Elementary during the past couple of months. When it returns from Houston, the team will be focusing its outreach on Southeast Alaska, as Hahne returns to his home region to talk at various schools and hold a scheduled presentation for Kenai Peninsula students at the Challenger Learning Center in May.

While in Houston, the UAF team will get 15 minutes on the reduced gravity aircraft to conduct its experiment. The aircraft is a Boeing C-9 cargo plane that flies in a parabola over the Gulf of Mexico. When it comes over the top of a parabola and descends toward Earth, the plane experiences about 25 seconds of microgravity, better known as zero-G. The teammates who will be flying had to take a physical, and Caswell said the plane ride before and after the microgravity period is so turbulent she has been warned she will be using that time to hug the floor and trying not to vomit.

“There is a wall of fame for flights where nobody threw up,” she said.