Experience weightlessness!

It's a fact of life that is frustrating for many scientists: gravity influences the way things happen: for example how gases and liquids behave, even the way that fire burns. Except for the few lucky ones who fly into space (astronauts), the only way to get away from the sensation and effects of gravity is to fly in an 'Zero-G' airplane for parabolic flights.

But how does it work? The plane flies upwards at a sharp angle, then the engines are cut and the plane falls back to Earth in a parabola. This manoeuvre is repeated 31 times over three hours (see illustration,) providing 20 seconds of weightlessness in each parabola. This experience of weightlessness is exactly that experienced by astronauts in space, the only difference being that it doesn’t last as long. The scientists enjoy these periods to perform their experiments!

Preparation: Click on the plane and get a virtual tour of the 'Zero-G' Airbus A300!

Activity: In groups of 4, discuss and answer the following questions:

1. How many seats are there in the cockpit? How many pilots are there?

    

2. When do you think that the people go to the front zone and the rear zone to sit? Why?

    

3. In the experiment zone 1: what do you think the red straps are for? Are they only on the floor? Why? Can you see in what the walls are covered? Why?

    

4. In the experiment zone 10.2: do you think it is safer to be in the zone with the rope netting than in the rest of the plane? Why? What would you like to do if you went to this zone during a weightlessness period?

    

5. In the experiment zone 4: what is used to cover the hard surfaces of the experiments? Why? Can you say who the people in orange are? In blue? Don’t you think it would be more practical for the girl with the floating hair to have the hair tied up?

    

6. In the experiment zone 6: What would you advise the man floating horizontally to do when we get closer to the end of the 20 seconds of weightlessness?