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Reduced-gravity aircraft
A reduced-gravity aircraft is a type of fixed-wing aircraft that provides brief near-weightless environments for training astronauts, conducting research, and making gravity-free movie shots.
Versions of such airplanes were operated by the NASA Reduced Gravity Research Program, and one is currently operated by the Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration Programmes of the European Space Agency. The unofficial nickname "vomit comet" became popular among those who experienced their operation.
Parabolic flight as a way of simulating weightlessness was first proposed by the German aerospace engineer Fritz Haber and his brother, physicist Heinz Haber in 1950. Both had been brought to the US after World War II as part of Operation Paperclip. As well, Shih-Chun Wang studied nausea in astronauts for NASA, which helped lead to the creation of the vomit comet.
Parabolic flights are sometimes used to examine the effects of weightlessness on a living organism. While humans are by far the most common passengers, animals have occasionally been involved in experiments, including a notable experiment on how weightlessness affected a domestic cat's righting reflex and a pigeon's attempts to navigate in a weightless state.
The aircraft gives its occupants the sensation of weightlessness by following a parabolic flight path, which is the path that objects naturally follow while in free fall. The aircraft is used in this way to demonstrate to astronauts what it is like to orbit the Earth. During this time the aircraft does not need to exert any ground reaction force on its contents to keep them stationary relative to the aircraft, causing the sensation of weightlessness.
Initially, the aircraft climbs with a pitch angle of about 45 degrees. The sensation of weightlessness is achieved by reducing thrust and lowering the nose to maintain a neutral, or "zero lift", configuration such that the aircraft follows the same path that an object in free fall, with no air resistance, would follow. Engine thrust is used to exactly compensate for drag. Weightlessness begins at the point when the plane starts to follow this parabolic path, which is while the plane is ascending. It lasts through the rest of the ascent, and into the descent phase, until the aircraft must pull up, usually when it reaches a downward pitch angle of around 30 degrees. The aircraft then pulls back up to repeat the maneuver. During this pull-up, the forces felt are roughly twice that of gravity. This cycle can be repeated.
This aircraft is used to train astronauts in zero-g maneuvers, giving them about 25 seconds of weightlessness out of 65 seconds of flight in each parabola. During such training, the airplane typically flies about 40–60 parabolic manoeuvres. In about two thirds of the passengers, these flights produce nausea due to airsickness, giving the plane its nickname "vomit comet".
The Canadian Space Agency and the National Research Council have a Falcon 20 used for microgravity research. The small plane is normally not used for people to float freely and experience weightlessness; however, comedian Rick Mercer did so for a segment of his show.
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Reduced-gravity aircraft
A reduced-gravity aircraft is a type of fixed-wing aircraft that provides brief near-weightless environments for training astronauts, conducting research, and making gravity-free movie shots.
Versions of such airplanes were operated by the NASA Reduced Gravity Research Program, and one is currently operated by the Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration Programmes of the European Space Agency. The unofficial nickname "vomit comet" became popular among those who experienced their operation.
Parabolic flight as a way of simulating weightlessness was first proposed by the German aerospace engineer Fritz Haber and his brother, physicist Heinz Haber in 1950. Both had been brought to the US after World War II as part of Operation Paperclip. As well, Shih-Chun Wang studied nausea in astronauts for NASA, which helped lead to the creation of the vomit comet.
Parabolic flights are sometimes used to examine the effects of weightlessness on a living organism. While humans are by far the most common passengers, animals have occasionally been involved in experiments, including a notable experiment on how weightlessness affected a domestic cat's righting reflex and a pigeon's attempts to navigate in a weightless state.
The aircraft gives its occupants the sensation of weightlessness by following a parabolic flight path, which is the path that objects naturally follow while in free fall. The aircraft is used in this way to demonstrate to astronauts what it is like to orbit the Earth. During this time the aircraft does not need to exert any ground reaction force on its contents to keep them stationary relative to the aircraft, causing the sensation of weightlessness.
Initially, the aircraft climbs with a pitch angle of about 45 degrees. The sensation of weightlessness is achieved by reducing thrust and lowering the nose to maintain a neutral, or "zero lift", configuration such that the aircraft follows the same path that an object in free fall, with no air resistance, would follow. Engine thrust is used to exactly compensate for drag. Weightlessness begins at the point when the plane starts to follow this parabolic path, which is while the plane is ascending. It lasts through the rest of the ascent, and into the descent phase, until the aircraft must pull up, usually when it reaches a downward pitch angle of around 30 degrees. The aircraft then pulls back up to repeat the maneuver. During this pull-up, the forces felt are roughly twice that of gravity. This cycle can be repeated.
This aircraft is used to train astronauts in zero-g maneuvers, giving them about 25 seconds of weightlessness out of 65 seconds of flight in each parabola. During such training, the airplane typically flies about 40–60 parabolic manoeuvres. In about two thirds of the passengers, these flights produce nausea due to airsickness, giving the plane its nickname "vomit comet".
The Canadian Space Agency and the National Research Council have a Falcon 20 used for microgravity research. The small plane is normally not used for people to float freely and experience weightlessness; however, comedian Rick Mercer did so for a segment of his show.