How does a zero gravity simulator used to train astronauts actually work?
In: 90
You know how when you shoot down in a rollercoaster it feels like you’re going to float out of your seat? It’s the same idea but with a whole plane, so they can practice moving around and not puking
The plane just falls.
The plane flies up very high, and the cuts its engine. The plane then falls in a parabolic arc until the pilots start to pull up.
During that time, the plane is accelerating down at 9.8m/s^(2), but so are the people inside of it, so from inside it looks like a 0g environment.
This is also essentially what happens in orbit. Astronauts on the ISS experience about the 95% force from Earth’s gravity as we do on the surface, but the ISS is constantly falling down towards the Earth at the same rate as the astronauts, so it feels like 0g
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