Comments on: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Weightless https://blog.speculist.com/space/the-incredible.html Live to see it. Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:21:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Stephen Gordon https://blog.speculist.com/space/the-incredible.html#comment-38 Stephen Gordon Thu, 16 Sep 2004 12:59:30 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=59#comment-38 Er, the unbearable expense of lightness!

Oh well…like everything else, if it catches on the price will drop. This is like skydiving for those who don’t like leaving an airplane in flight

I heard that one of the reasons NASA used this method to train astronauts at the beginning of the space program was that they wanted to be sure the astronauts could psychologically handle the weightless feeling. Apparently there was some fear that once weightless the astronauts would have a constant feeling of falling and would freak out.

That really hasn’t been a problem though.

Did you guys know that Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 was filmed this way? I’m guessing this makes it the first major motion picture to use actual zero g during production.

]]> By: Phil Bowermaster https://blog.speculist.com/space/the-incredible.html#comment-37 Phil Bowermaster Wed, 15 Sep 2004 16:22:27 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=59#comment-37 Chris,

I have activated html tags in the comments. Thanks for the heads up.

]]> By: AndrewS https://blog.speculist.com/space/the-incredible.html#comment-36 AndrewS Wed, 15 Sep 2004 15:10:36 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=59#comment-36 I had heard of them before and have been waiting for them to actually start selling tickets but I hadn’t realized that Peter Diamandis (of X-Prize fame) was also in charge of Zero Gravity Corporation.

]]> By: cdhall https://blog.speculist.com/space/the-incredible.html#comment-35 cdhall Wed, 15 Sep 2004 13:28:49 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=59#comment-35 ahh, the UnorderedList html tags didn’t work.

]]> By: cdhall https://blog.speculist.com/space/the-incredible.html#comment-34 cdhall Wed, 15 Sep 2004 13:28:20 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=59#comment-34 the link goes to NASA’s Reduced Gravity Flight Opportunities program generic schedule. this student program is pretty cool: groups of students design an experiment and go fly it on NASA’s KC 135 (an AF version of Boeing 707). As it states on the site:
    Each flight will last an average of 60 to 80 minutes, and will fly approximately thirty, zeroG parabolic maneuvers over the Gulf of Mexico . The trajectory flown on each zeroG parabolic maneuver will provide approximately 25 seconds of zero-gravity conditions for each team’s experiment. At the end of the zeroG maneuvers, teams/experiments are also treated to approximately 30 seconds of lunar-g (1/6-g) and approximately 40 seconds of Martian-g (1/3-g).

I expect the commercial venture will be something similar.

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