By Kim Glovas
Filed Under:Bucks County, Council Rock, Fred Bauer, HUNCH, Kim Glovas, NASA, Zero Gravity
In the middle is Fernando Zumbado, a NASA engineer who is working on the Orion, a space capsule that will get humans to Mars. (credit: Kat Johnston)

By Kim Glovas

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Zero gravity isn’t something most of us will ever experience, but some students at one Bucks County high school got to do just that recently.

Four students from Council Rock South High School were part of the HUNCH program: High school students United with NASA to Create Hardware.

Fred Bauer was the teacher who got the kids on board.

“Students were tasked to work on hardware development for NASA, and in doing so, the final experiment had to take place in zero gravity.”

Senior Matt Piorko designed the hardware.

“It was based around a nano-lab design, it was a rectangle prism. It’s about 4-inches by 4-inches by 8 inches, and your entire experiment has to fit in there because that’s what you can put up to the ISS.”

That’s the International Space Station. In April, the crew took it to NASA’s Zero Gravity simulator in Houston to be tested. Some adjustments needed, but that’s okay, there’s another crew of seniors waiting in the wings to take over the project in the fall.

(credit: Kat Johnston)

(credit: Kat Johnston)