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Students Michael Rudis (right) and Zach Davis test their zero gravity bed aboard NASA’s KC-135.

Could falling asleep in zero gravity really be all that hard to do? A mattress can never be too hard or too soft and pillows are . . . immaterial. A group of PSU architecture students went to the mat on this question and designed a special sleeping bag, which they tested onboard NASA’s zero gravity plane, a KC-135. They are the first architecture students to participate in NASA’s Microgravity University program.

The students decided that sleeping without the weight of a blanket or comfort of a mattress was unacceptable. “Human beings are not used to the space environment. Many of us like to feel enclosed when we sleep,” says Michael Rudis, lead researcher of the Off Planet Architecture team comprised of Andrew Brahe, Zach Davis, Brandon Dole, Amy Graeff, Allison Plass, and Ela Steich.

The team designed a zippered and laced sleeping bag with tubes of compressed air to mimic weight.

After a year of work, four proposals, an Oregon Space Grant, and reviews by both PSU and NASA research boards, the Off Planet Architecture team was accepted into NASA’s Microgravity program, which resulted in a week and a half at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and two days of experiments on the KC-135.

On July 15 and 16, the PSU students, in teams of two, along with five other student teams, tested their projects as the plane attained zero gravity for 18 to 20 seconds, 30 times in a row. To reach that state, the KC-135 flies in a parabolic arc.

On the second day, the student teams had special guests join them in flight: James Locke, a NASA flight surgeon, and astronaut David Wolf, who has logged more than 100 nights in space. Both had taken an early interest in the PSU student project.

Wolf liked the sleeping bag, says Rudis, and offered constructive comments. Rudis, who is a senior, hopes to work with another team and put Wolf’s insights into a redesign and another proposal to NASA this coming academic year.

To see the sleeping bag design, go to the Web site www.offplanetarchitecutre.pdx.edu.