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Pictures of the type plate of the airplane on the ISS with astronaut signatures in the main room at Novespace
Everything is ready including the measurement lens in the eye
Last preparations of the team with Brandon Rasman (l) and Patrick Forbes (r), the responsibles for this experiment
The following video shows, that a 0.75 g parabola is not as impressive as a zero-g parabola (as a comparison, the angle during a 0 g parabola when entering 0 g is 47° (see picture here), and in this 0.75 g parabola it was 18°, the other gravity levels are somewhere in between that):
0.75 g parabola as seen from the window
By the way these parabolas take longer: 26 s for 0,25 g, 37 s for 0,5 g and 50 s for 0,75 g. For zero-g it is 22 s.
Me during the experiment (front)
Again with the plane after the flight
The French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, one of our pilots
And then there was this (Dune du Pilat). All visitors of the dune probably know that people do a lot of "nonsense" there, because it just works, especially running down slow-mo like and jumping down. Since 14 years I have not done a cartwheel turn with flic flac, but here you just shake it out of your sleeve and it isn't even hard. O.k. there is a small trick, this is a slope (approx. 20° inclination). On the flat ground I couldn't do that. The other side (see the somersault video) is quite a lot steeper, something like 40°. There you can do some more stuff, but you must also take more care, but at least not much can happen with sand landings. A bit more jumping and you really fly off... And also somehow a bit like partial-g... *g*
Dune du Pyla, Flic-Flac
Haha, the dune saved my day, there I could do everything that was not allowed on the flight!
Microgravity science
German Space Agency
European Space Agency ESA
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In this experiment the same test with the electrical stimulation of the balance system was performed as during the VESTAND experiment in December 2017, but only the laying down part, and only the unvoluntary eye movements caused by the stimulation were recorded with a camera. Of course we were not allowed to take medication for this flight, because the science would be screwed if the balance organ is inhibited. After half of the flight the test persons were exchanged, which means that 2 test persons could enjoy the flight while the other 2 were occupied with the experiment.
Preparations
...and again a group photo of the flight team on June 5th
A small impression on how it looks like in the airplane during a 0.25 g parabola can be seen in the following video. For 0.5 and 0.75 g the difference to normal 1 g gravity gets less and is hardly perceptible at 0.75 g. Sadly it was not allowed for safety reasons to try out more than walking around a bit and do a bit of hopping with the hand on the safety rope. What would have been really interesting during 0.25 g (I would have liked trying out a flic-flac and some other gymnastic stunts).
0.25 g parabola from inside the plane
Here is a nice comparison of 0.25 g and 1.8 g (almost double gravity at the pullout of the parabola):
0.25 g
1.8 g
My summary is however: Weightlessness is nicer and more fun. But I was not alone with this rating, from other flyers as well (especially the ones that know zero-g) I heard that the parabolas were unspectacular or even boring. Nevertheless it was an interesting experience.
Dune du Pyla, Salto
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