![]() Once the chamber is evacuated the release sequence is initiated. It takes approximately one hour to evacuate the vacuum chamber. This cable allows the experiment to be monitored and controlled from the control room until the release sequence is initialized. Once in position, the drop vehicle is connected to the facility control room via an umbilical cable. ![]() To prepare for a drop, an overhead crane is used to position the experiment vehicle and release mechanism at the top of the vacuum chamber. Evacuating the chamber to this pressure reduces the aerodynamic drag on the freely falling experiment vehicle to less than 0.00001 g. A 5 stage vacuum pumping process is used to reduce the pressure in the chamber to a pressure of 0.05 torr (760 torr = standard atmospheric pressure). The chamber is 20 ft (6.1 m) in diameter and resides inside of a 28.5 ft (8.7 m) diameter concrete lined shaft, which extends 510 feet (155 m) below ground level. The free fall is conducted inside of a 467 foot (142 m) long steel vacuum chamber. Allowing the experiment hardware to free fall a distance of 432 feet (132 m) creates the microgravity environment at the Zero-G facility. NASA conducts microgravity experiments on earth using drops towers and aircraft flying parabolic trajectories. Microgravity, which is the condition of relative near weightlessness, can only be achieved on Earth by putting an object in a state of free fall. The Zero-G facility provides researchers with a near weightless or microgravity environment for a duration of 5.18 seconds. The facility is currently used by NASA funded researchers from around the world to study the effects of microgravity on physical phenomena such as combustion and fluid physics, to develop and demonstrate new technology for future space missions, and to develop and test experiment hardware designed for flight aboard the International Space Station or future spacecraft. It was originally designed and built during the space race era of the 1960s to support research and development of space flight components and fluid systems, in a weightless or microgravity environment. The Zero-G facility has been operational since 1966. The Zero-G facility is one of two drop towers located at the NASA site in Brook Park, Ohio. The Zero Gravity Research Facility is NASA’s premier facility for ground based microgravity research, and the largest facility of its kind in the world. ![]() Facility Overview Mezzanine view of the drop vehicle and release mechanism being positioned over the vacuum chamber with a technician signaling the crane operator in the Zero Gravity Research Facility. It provides researchers with a near weightless environment for a duration of 5.18 seconds. ![]() and September in Memphis,Tenn.Home > Facilities Zero Gravity Research Facility TwoZERO-G Weightless Lab flights have already been scheduled for July in Ft.Lauderdale, Fla. PastZERO-G client projects have included studies in biomedical and pharmaceuticalresearch, fluid and fundamental physics, materials science, aerospaceengineering, space exploration hardware and human space habitation. TheFederal Aviation Administration must issue approvals for the experiments,including a Test Readiness Review. Researchproposals will be reviewed by ZERO-G'sresearch staff and its airline partner, Amerijet International Cargo. "The results were just as we predicted and my team has flown anotherspecimen to the ISS since my flight." "Mymost prized on-orbit activity was the protein crystallization project," hesaid. "TheZERO-G Weightless Lab is a great first-step in space-based research," hesaid.ĭuringhis trip, Garriott traveled to the International Space Station and conductedresearch to test the effects of the weightless environment on things likeprotein crystals. RichardGarriott, a space tourist who brokered his 2008 trip aboard a Russian Soyuzspacecraft through Space Adventures, endorsed the new program. The labprogram includes a total of 25 parabolas, storage space and a containment unitfor smaller research projects. TheZERO-G Weightless Lab offers clients the opportunity to charter a section ofthe plane, rather than the entire plane, for the two-day program.
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