A state hard to replicate on Earth
While a vacuum can easily be generated on Earth, weightlessness—or microgravity to be more precise—is hard to achieve. Hard, but not impossible.
Today, we have several ways of producing free-fall conditions.
Drop towers several hundred metres high and drop shafts just as deep can create microgravity conditions for 3 to 10 seconds. Such facilities, which may be centimetres or metres across, are used for material physics and fundamental research experiments.
Today, we have several ways of producing free-fall conditions.
Drop towers several hundred metres high and drop shafts just as deep can create microgravity conditions for 3 to 10 seconds. Such facilities, which may be centimetres or metres across, are used for material physics and fundamental research experiments.
Credits: Airbus Industries
Le vol parabolique, on a specially outfitted aircraft are another means of producing free-fall. The aircraft first ascends like a projectile using a lot of initial thrust. Under the effect of gravity, it then comes back to Earth in free fall for about 20 seconds. Parabolic flights are used to perform all kinds of experiments and are the only way to do it with humans.
Imagined by Jean-Pierre Penot (CNES) and Bernard Nicolas, illustrated by Bernard Nicolas
These techniques can only create microgravity conditions for no more than a quarter of an hour. The best way to obtain permanent weightlessness is obviously in orbit.
