Experimental Characterization of Weightlessness During Glider Parabolic Flights
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Experimental Characterization of Weightlessness During Glider Parabolic Flights Denis-Gabriel Caprace1,2
· Camille Gontier1,3
· Mohammad Iranmanesh1 · Mehdi Scoubeau1 · Vladimir Pletser4
Received: 16 April 2020 / Accepted: 24 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Access to earthbound weightlessness is critical to many branches of applied sciences. Besides, several space systems require microgravity testing before their launch. Existing solutions (drop towers, parabolic flights, sounding rockets) offer variable durations and qualities of microgravity environment, but their cost and lead times make them unpractical for small actors such as universities or start-up companies. This leads to a growing interest for alternative microgravity platforms. Here, we study the use of gliders to perform parabolic flights at a lower cost, and we propose a systematic quantification of glider’s 0-g flight capabilities. Results of our flight test campaign show that gliders offer up to 5.5s of weightlessness, with excursions below 0.1g, and a satisfactory level of repeatability. Besides, the recordings do not suffer from the increased level of vibrations generated by piston engines, typical of light-aircraft-based alternatives. Operational considerations associated with glider parabolic flights are also discussed. Finally, we conclude that a microgravity platform based on gliders would be suitable especially for compact experiments and equipment in order to support accelerated design and development, or to produce preliminary experimental results. Keywords Microgravity experiments · Gliders · Parabolic flights
Introduction Experiments in a reduced-weight environment are a fundamental part of many branches of applied sciences, such as material science, fundamental physics, fluid dynamics, physiology and space medicine, plant and cellular biology, combustion physics. All require conducting experiments in weightlessness (Seibert et al. 2001; Beysens and van Loon 2015; Pletser 2018). Additionally, the current trend of space commercialization (de Crombrugghe and Pletser 2017) induces a growing interest for weightlessness facilities. Yet, the number of solutions able to reproduce microgravity on Earth is limited and they all have their limitations (Herranz Camille Gontier
[email protected] 1
LIDE Space, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
2
Institutes of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering, Universit´e catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
3
Department of Physiology, University of Bern, B¨uhlplatz 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
4
Blue Abyss, Liverpool, United Kingdom
et al. 2013; de Crombrugghe and Pletser 2017). Sounding rockets, aircraft parabolic flights and drop towers are today’s most valued microgravity platforms. However, their cost and lead times make them unaffordable or unpractical for many space actors, such as small start-ups, universities, or student projects (Council 2011). In particular, parabolic flights performed with aircraft were introduced in the 50’s, namely to study the
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