Then, they tried spinning while they nodded and shook their heads. Shepherd and three of his peers conducted tests on the plane, while the rest of the team performed the same tests simultaneously on the ground to compare results. She speculated that an inner ear function could be the culprit of motion sickness. Unlike high school chemistry experiments that typically yield predictable results, experiments conducted in zero-gravity have been taking place for just 40 years and lack a basic certainty, Banasik said. The difficulties the students experienced suggest they alter their experiments for more consistent results, she said.
Motion sickness is a very big mystery.
Although assuming the role of professional scientists gave the students an experience of a lifetime, it also taught them that space and astronautics wasn't as glamorous as they might have thought. I don't think I've had so much fun in my entire life.