7th Student Parabolic Flight Campaign: Familiarisation flight for ZeroGraptor
Team 1036 - Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne Oh, my goodness! This is the most marvellous experience of our lives! Adrenaline rushes through our blood during and after the parabolas! There is no up or down, there is only the certainty that the airplane has a ceiling and a floor.
At first, during hypergravity, pushed against our seats, moving was difficult but not as hard as we'd expected. We felt like giants treading through a swamp. Then came the magical moment, when the Captain said "Injection!"
The floor moved away from our feet, it felt like falling, but, as we looked around, we saw we were floating around in the air! A gentle push makes the feet go up, and when bouncing against the wall, the body goes right away in the opposite direction.
When I was a kid I always wondered, what the feeling was in astronauts' ears with regards to balance: well, nothing really! Other parts of the brain take over... Actually though, maybe there was just a little too much excitement for us to analyse the situation objectively, we will see tomorrow, when we do some serious work…
