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Zero Gravity Flights for the Rest of Us
waynegoode writes "Zero G Corporation, whose motto is "Question Gravity", is now offering zero gravity flights to the general public. For $3000 you get training and a 90 minute ride with 15 periods of 25 seconds of low or zero-gravity: 3 1/3 Mars gravity, 3 1/6 Lunar gravity, and 9 zero gravity. Peter Diamandis, the man behind the Ansari X Prize, worked 11 years to get FAA approval. Previously, such flights were available only to astronauts, researchers, and Tom Hanks; although recently flights for the public began Russia for about twice the price. Story also here."
The porn industry would do it first!
Come to think about it, maybe they'll start using this as well, though 25 seconds isn't very long.
That should read "Free-Fall Flights for the Rest of Us". Zero Gravity has a very different meaning, and hasn't been an acceptable substitute for "free-fall" in 20+ years.
Case in point: when I first saw the headline, I thought that some nut was offering rides on an antigravity space ship.
Of course, one should question a company who's name is "Zero G" and offers "Zero Gravity flights". If they really do such a thing, they should know better than I that the term is actually "free-fall".
In case anyone's interested, skydiving is a cheaper way of obtaining a similar experience. The primary difference with skydiving is the lack of walls.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Simply take a bottle full of Ipecac and save yourself a few thousand dollars.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
...I just drink copious amounts of Jagermeister. Works like a charm, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper.
"Gravity isn't just a good idea, it's the law" - Author Unknown
Now, to gravitate to the story...
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
that does not seem like a long time...
of course falling from a great height it can seem like forever...
but I can just see someone trying a "cool trick" in zero G.. then the 25 secs ends and the kids lands on his head... that would be bad...
- Your stupidity got you into this mess, why can't it get you out? -Will Rogers
How would you like to get higher than you've ever been before? Become an astronaught? Sure!
Consider that sky-diving can also offer you zero-g styled environment and it almost seems like a ripoff. If you were doing serious research it would be worth the cash but just for the sensation of free fall you can do better for less.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
to the floating vomit gallery?
but with the discressionary income of allot of americans, I could see this as being a business. it's like going on a roller coaster, but with more of the wow factor! ;)
CBdfs(setwhore-yest)
free ipod and free gmail!
Xeni Jardin, over at Boingboing.net has a ticket and is blogging the experience.
Warning! Keep Out of Eyes! Wash Out with Water! Don't Drink Soap! Dilute! Dilute!
That's relatively affordable for the uniqueness of the experience. And hey, maybe even more affordable. Since I write science fiction novels with such low-gravity and free-fall environments, I bet I could write this off! Whoo hoo!
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing is going to be on one of the flights, you can read more here
.sdrawkcab si gis siht
Just find a road with some small hills and go fast enough to just become airborne. Always got a kick out of that as a kid in the back of my parents station wagon. May be short lived, but it's cheep!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Fantastic idea to make a costly modern age pr0n
fifteen jugglers, five believers
The secret to flying is to hurl yourself at the ground and miss. (one of the more amusing ideas from HHGG)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Assume we'll get an update after her ride, which then saves me $3000 - until I decide I have to experience it myself...
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It's really called that.
Great! Now I can pay $3000 to throw up and shit myself while feeling disoriented, light-headed, and dizzy.
I can do that for $5 by going to the liquor store and buying a liter of anything in a cheap plastic bottle.
I did not design this game/I did not name the stakes/I just happen to like apples/And I am not afraid of snakes-AniD
Jesus,
what the hell was the FAA thinking.
If this isn't an advertisment for reducing the size of goverment I don't know what is.
Civil dis-obedience is rapidly becoming mandatory behaviour.
Wouldnt you get a similar effect on some of the larger roller coasters? You could ride one 25 times for a days admission to a theme park.
Flying The Vomit Comet Has Its Ups And Downs. NOTE: article deserves props for it's title alone, but it's also very revealing about what getting to Zero G is like. Not sure if I'd want to do it, but it must be a crazy feeling.
CB(whr=1)
free ipod and free gmail!
It's completely proper if you're slavic. Do I need to post the link to Elektronik Supersonik again?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
The physics behind the experience is analogous to what happens during a roller-coaster ride or a fast elevator descent.
:)
Hmmm.....ride a fast elevator for free (which requires no bs training), or pay $3000 and take a class. Man, thats a hard choice.
Oh and as someone stated already, 0 grav is diferent from free-falling around the planet and missing it
---
My sig was stolen - the insurance company replaced it with this one.
It would be great, the Free Fall flights traveling, make the trips way more enjoyable. It would kick any in-flight movie's ass and I bet no one would complain about the lack of meals.
Underloved Movies and Pub Quiz: donotquestionme.org
At least for dogs.
I hope the experiments triggered by the X-prize would lead to 'real' low-cost space flights soon.
This new flight though would give one the experience, wouldn't be as thrilling as a real flight i suppose.
I don't know if it's a proper example, but it, in my opinion, this would just be like wearing the special goggles and watching a 3d movie.
Damn! What is reality?!?!
You can do this with a single prop plane, it'd be hard to beat 25sec but you can get a good 10sec 0 gravity in one.
Why is it that the NASA/military free-fall flights are so notorious for inducing nausea in the participants that they've been dubbed "Vomit Comet," yet you never hear about anyone getting airsick or puking during a skydive?
Afterwards, Tom Hanks was Quoted as Saying:
"That's not Flying... That was Falling with Style!"
No wait, we don't live in a virutal world! Damn!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I'm signing up as we speak!
I have never been sky diving, but you essentially get zero gravity while sky diving right? The only difference or course is you have the wind blowing in your face.
For my money, if I had $3000 I would go buy a Segway scooter to ride around all day. Think how many women that would get me!
Skydiving has a lot of wind!
Shit, that's about all most of us nerds need :)
Hmmm.
Insightful?
Skydiving has wind rushing by you at 140mph. There's no real sensation of weightlessness, just thirty seconds of rush followed by a nuclear wedgie.
I misread the headline as "Zero Gravity Fights for the Rest of Us."
The first thing I thought was, " I'm gonna f*%k someone's day all up in zero G, bitch."
And the second was, "Oh yeah? Well, TRON fights for the users, man."
If you're sick, take some Nyquil and then drink a glass of wine. Go directly to bed. You'll know what 0 gravity feels like! It's so awesome and only cost about 10 bucks.
My name is a variety of floral rose, and no, it's not blue
Yow. Still it might appeal to the tub girl goatse
fraternity...
(and don't forget you get 2G as well for free if it's
like NASA's KC-10...).
That would probably be a good first-order approximation of being in zero-G conditions. Of course, not too many folks jump out of planes at that altitude... :-)
I know parent is a bit redundant, but that version almost made me shoot water out of my nose.
Almost anyone can relate to that, though I haven't yet had the misfortune of shitting myself in a drunken stupor.
Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller rode the Comet. I was even posted on Slashdot: http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=115312 &cid=9770946
In Penn's article, he mentions another noteworthy Vomit Comet expedition: The filming of the Pr0n movie, "The Uranus Experiment."
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
To avoid the possibility any other responders to this thread demonstrate a critical need to be cracked with a cluestick:
What a person experiences in this case is *identical* to what you'd experience in Space.
You don't suddenly leave the Earths gravitational field in orbit and start floating around. You just fall in a parabola that happens to miss the ground.
One would think this was common knowledge, but from the posts on here, its clearly not.
I'm actually sitting only 300 yards away from NASA's KC-135, affectionately known as the Vomit Comet. This is the aircraft that NASA uses to do micro-gravity research. (ie. zero-g flights with experiments in tow.) I've had the opportunity to fly on the thing but turned it down. (Yeah I'm a big chicken. A big green-in-the-face chicken in fact.)
Reckon I won't be spending $3000 to do what I could have done for free....
Life is pain. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.
No - in skydiving you rapidly reach terminal velocity where your speed matches the wind resistance - you feel the air pressure against you.
In a parabolic flight the air and everyting in your frame of reference is "falling" with you so you don't have that resistance and you feel weightless. Very different experience.
As for the segway I think the answer to your question is as close to zero as makes no difference.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck load of tapes
The earth sucks.
a free Zero-G Tote Bag!
barf bag, tote bag - don't be such a nitpicker...
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This is very different from skydiving and very similar to orbital flight. With typical skydiving you never actually feel a lack of acceleration force. The point is the box in this case has control surfaces and flies a parabolic arc to counter the forces of air friction, all forces of air friction are removed, and in the frame of reference inside the aircraft gravitational forces don't manifest as a perceived phenomenon. What do you think an Orbit is? It's a vehicle falling under gravity and missing the Earth because of it's velocity vector (in the Newtonian model), the two differences between this and an orbital flight are the control surfaces (and engines) on the vehicle eliminating the forces of air and the fact that the arc of motion intersects the Earth. If you call orbital flights zero-G then you should call this flight zero-G because the relevant difference air friction is eliminated with by the aircraft.
Skydiving when you exit the plane you immediately feel the force of air blasting you from the direction of flight, the speed of the aircraft is enough that this force is some significant portion of 1G, it actually feels like you're falling sideways once you're used to skydiving, skydivers call this "the hill". Eventually as you fall the forward motion is eliminated as you accelerate downwards but again it just feels like the vector from which the air is pushing you has changed. From then on you're lying on a cushion of air with a full 1G of gravity, and you feel this. Skydivers do seek the thrill of weightlessness by jumping from relatively stationary platforms, like Helicopters or Hot Air Balloons, unlike normal skydiving from an moving plane you get that lump in your throat "I'm falling" feeling for a few seconds at the start of the jump. Same with BASE jumping.
No way can I afford $3000, but can I take 9 of my buddies and each pay $300? Here's the itinerary guys:
Lunar-G flights: Moonwalk competition.
Mars-G flights: Martian wrestling. (Imagine the bodyslams!)
Zero-G flights: Zero-G dodgeball, baby!
I'm giggling already.
It's just that they have a rather odd diagram on there showing when the freefall periods occur. It doesn't look right to me.
It shows you get "zero g" (freefall) from the point where the aircraft starts to level off from a climb, until it starts to tip over... surely the freefall would occur from when it started to tip over until it started to pull up ?
in a glider, you can fly in zero-gravity for about 5 or 10 seconds. If you like the idea, go to the nearest airfield and ask them, it's fun. Price should be around 30 dollars for a flight for non-members. But you can't run around at zero gravity, because you'll be wearing a 4 or 5-point seat belt. (pssst... glider acrobatics are even more fun, but that varies between -2g and +5g)
your mile high club status to the 6 mile high club! Oh who am I kidding... with this audience...
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
Douglas Adams is lucky he's dead. I tried missing the ground and broke my nose.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
I get zero gravity about, say 15 beers.
waaaay cheaper, and I dont' have to leave my house
For your information, it has been *already* done:
- The Uranus Experiment
- The Uranus Experiment 2
- The Uranus Experiment 3
BTW, those of us who have been lucky enough to have been in a parabolic flight know how difficult should have been filming such movie...
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Listen shrub,
I'm in a plane with no windows. Some force is keeping my feet on the floor and giving me the sensation of weight. I take two balls out of my pockets. I drop them.
If the balls fall straight down in parallel paths, I am undergoing constant acceleration.
If the balls do not fall in parallel paths, but rather land closer together, I am feeling the effects of gravity and the two paths intersect at the center of gravity for the system.
Yes, some theoretical gravity field with a center of gravity at an infinite distance will cause objects to fall in parallel paths. The real gravity field affecting the plane, the balls, and me is not such a field, and can be distinguished from constant acceleration.
Actually, methods of determining an un-seen source of 'gravity' (under influence of planet, rotating space station, constant acceleration in a straight line) was in the first problem set on the first of class in freshman physics. See what you would of learned if you had gone to class?
What's funny is that they could only afford to the dive a couple of times, so they only have a little bit of footage. But there is other footage where they "simulate" zero-g with very tacky and hysterical porn special effects.
It's not a very good video. Although it does have some killer 3d special effects, that appear to be done with 3ds r4.
- Derek
Treat me like a marketing stat, and I'll treat your movie like a series of ones and zeros
how this is any harder-core than say, sky-diving, bungee-jumping, or free-fall netdiving ( all of which I've done )? While this seems fun and all, it hardly seems to be the rush it's made out to be. Still, I guess if I had money to burn, I'd do it, otherwise for $3000, I'd rather give a couple hundred to a bungee place and jump all day, then go get drunk as fuck, higher than a kite, and still wake up with $2000.
PC moderators can suck my White pierced, tattooed dick. If you think pride == hate, s/dick/Aryan meat mallet/g.
There is a saying something like:
"If you call piloting a plane flying, you must call steering a boat swimming. Get out and fly."
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
Well, that's not his fault. He made it perfectly clear that missing the ground is the tricky part.
When I went nearly half the experimenters got quite sick. The smart groups made the experiments automated and spend the time doing flying kicks and walking up walls. Or, of course, Vomiting. Nasa hates the name Vomit Comet, but everyone calls it that. A problem was the camera people would come up to you on the plane while you were frantically working to make your project work due to some bug you missed before hand. When they come you are suppose to smile and wave and say hi to folks at home that will get shown the video. This is rather bad for a serious project that has 10k+ invested in it for plane tickets and hotel rooms.
For some great photos of flights try http://zerog.jsc.nasa.gov/2004SpringCollegeCampaig n/viewer.cgi
I'd say more, but my guild is raiding.
You all want to do this, if only for the opportunity to open up a bag of potato chips then gobble them up pacman-style.
Hmm, don't think there is that much office space near Ellington field. Mostly restricted government areas that you get shot at by National Guardsmen for taking photos of. The KC-135 is done anyway. Too old and time for a very expensive C check, so it is now time for a DC-9 to do the Job. The folks at Ellington are much happier, even if it is smaller than the 707, it has better engines and has much more ease of control.
I'd say more, but my guild is raiding.
For three grand, I would hope they include a change of clothing in the package.
"The secret to flying is to hurl yourself at the ground and miss. (one of the more amusing ideas from HHGG)"
Or indeed, perpendicular to the ground, and extremely fast...
If I want to experience a few seconds of 0 gravity ill just fly southwestern airlines again.
"pardon me son, did we land or were we shot down?"
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. -Fight Club
I can't believe that nobody else has pointed out something mentioned at the end of the article: They are going to be using regular cargo aircraft that are temporarily reconfigured for the 0G flights, and have been awarded a patent for this idea.
Eventually you will accumulate the same as the 225 seconds of zero-g that you get with $3000, but do you really want to jump for weeks on end? That sounds like more work then fun.
The simple fact is that it's not the same thing. It's a little hard fly like superman on a roller coaster, even if the roller coaster is called "fly like superman roller coaster".
-Derek
Treat me like a marketing stat, and I'll treat your movie like a series of ones and zeros
When I first read the story, up until I went to the company's web site, I thought the company selling the rides was Zero G Software. They make InstallAnywhere, a product I've used extensively. I thought it was a cool tie-in and a great way to get the company noticed.
Oh well, so much for the free ride for using their product to bundle our product...
The public road is far too uncontrolled. And everyone outside of trained stunt drivers are too uncontrolled as well.
My (our) roads are not your playground.
Any unexpected cleanup of the plane interior after the flight may cost you extra.
25 seconds? Kinda too short to jerk off I guess... but on the other hand you can try for 25 times.
;)
But seriously I wonder if any of the astronauts had have sex in zero g? If so, was g point easier to find?
-- All Gods were immortal.
-- S. Lem
We've actually done the free fall experience in Cessna 172's. I think all those Cessna's are rated for 0G or even -1G or more no problem. Of course, it is no where near 25 seconds long, but we were still cackling like crazy kids.
Simply fly long up and down swoops. When you arch over the top and start to descend, the pilot controls the rate so that everything in the cabin lifts up and floats. I spun my 35mm camera in front of me, hanging in the air, so you get a few seconds. Quite a rush.
couldnt you get the same feeling from skydiving in a enclosed "bubble"? Where the chute was attached to the bubble and you were loose inside of it?
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I worked for a charter airline, and we were approached by someone wanting to do something like this... probably 1997ish. They wanted to take some of our cargo planes, slap some FedEx PeoplePaks in them, and have them fly these sorts of flights during the day (when cargo planes are normally idle).
The scary thing is that most cargo planes are cargo planes because they're too freakin' OLD for sane passengers to fly in.
Now, okay, I'm no aeronautical engineer, but I can't imagine taking those creaky old (many older than I am; see sig) birds and doing *anything* weird with them. The whole time I was in freefall, I'd be thinking, "okay, is this going to stop, or did the wings fall off?"
Okay, so the things would be all but unloaded, compared to hauling cargo, but still... seems like the stresses would be *different*. (Their FAQ doesn't exactly answer this straightforwardly, either.)
Hmm. Nowhere on their website am I finding the tail number for their bird. Could be one of our 727-200's, but the airline I worked for hasn't updated its website since, well, about the time I left in 1998. Oh, wait. Nope, looks like it's Amerijet N994AJ.
Heh. The reason the Zero-G website only shows the left side of the plane is because the right side is a Diet Rite ad.
Slashdot's token middle-aged housewife
There is a big difference between free-falling in the atmosphere and free-falling in an airplane: the air does not rush past you in the airplane and that is why it is called "zero gravity".
When you free-fall out of an airplane, (or a balloon), after about 12 seconds you reach terminal velocity. The air friction against your fall negates the acceleration that the earth exerts on you.
Free-falling in an airplane does not cause this as the air in the plane moves with you. Hence, for all "practical" purposes, you are experiencing zero-g.
I know. I have experienced several 5 seconds zero-g flight simulation. Good pilots can emulate the particular flight trajectories needed.
Post-Customer Trip Specialist
Job code: VC-15x9
Job duties: Return plane interior to pre-trip state, including walls, ceilings, and seats.
Requirements: No allergies to cleaning products.
Space-time is curved.
the air does not rush past you in the airplane and that is why it is called "zero gravity"
...urrrgggg... ...PERSON... to get it WRONG!!!
No, it's called FREE-FALL. ZERO GRAVITY IS AN OUTMODED TERM THAT INCORRECTLY DESCRIBES A COMPLETE LACK OF GRAVITATIONAL FORCES. YOU ARE NOT EXPERIENCING ZERO GRAVITY, YOU ARE EXPERIENCING ZERO G-FORCES. I.E. THE PLANE AND YOU ARE FALLING AT THE SAME RATE.
Pardon me for YELLING, but you're the five hundredth
Now excuse me while I go swear up a storm.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Pardon me for being old tech, but you can have a similar experience at your local amusement park for a lot less money plus you have a shot at picking up chicks.
If you feel the need to add to the thrill, consider that the tons of steel in your average amusement ride is assembled by minimum wage carnies - composed of felons, degenerates and illiterates - and held together with cotter-keys.
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it? ~ Albert Einstein
actually, he's not the hundredth person to get it wrong. the first person to get it wrong was Einstein. then everybody else after him got it wrong too.
in fact, only you have got it right. I'm wrong too, I still believe Albert.
everybody is wrong except you. just keep believing that. just stop yelling, it makes you look really really stupid. be quietly right. better still, be silently right, shut up and let the whole of the scientific establishment happily continue being wrong.
I thought that was part of the appeal?
I went on a lame bungee-dive type thing at Magic Mountain, and was amazed - just being at that height (150 ft?) scared me SO MUCH. Had no idea I could be that scared. The falling and swooping around and stuff was totally tame and anticlimactic.
So I've always wanted to do it again just to tweak that amazingly intense fear. That's not what people skydive for? What's the point then? (But I don't get to Magic Mountain that often - and I'm scared.)
Your point about equivalence does stand, but I can still tell acceleration from old fashioned gravity. You're really talking about two different things.
If I'm in a closed room with no outside stimuli other than some gravity-like force, there are experiments I can perform to learn something about the nature of that force.
However if I'm in a closed room with no detectable gravity...well, you know, there are still things I can do to determine if I am in free fall or out in the middle of no where with no gravity-producing mass around.
I take my two balls and place them in the air. If I'm free from all gravity, or in an area where opposing fields cancel out, the balls will remain stationary.
If I am in free fall, then the balls are falling. Even through I am falling at the same rate, they will follow paths according the center of gravity and gradually get closer together. Their paths will intersect at the center of gravity. (Yes, the balls would have to be placed perfectly still and in any realistic situation it would be extremely difficult to measure by what amount the balls' paths deviate from parallel, but hey, its a thought experiment.)
I'm not arguing the relationship between gravity and acceleration. There's a reason g is expressed in units of acceleration. But I can still distinguish the effects of free fall from the advanced effect of a machine generating a gravity field opposing earth's.
Acceleration is not scalar. It has direction. If I'm on the Earth, two objects get closer together as they fall, moving towards the center of the Earth. If I'm in a rotating space station, two objects move apart as they fall, moving radially away from the center of rotation. (Well, that's not quite right because the acceleration is tangential to the rotation, not towards the center of rotation in sense that Earth gravity is acceleration away from the center of gravity. The point is, I can figure out I'm on a rotating space station and not on the Earth.)
If I'm moved by straight-line acceleration with no gravitational effects, falling objects follow parallel paths. These effects still exist even if I am in free fall and stationary relative to the falling objects.
And yes, I do have issues. Thank you for noticing. =)
The Zero group has been offering 0-g flights in Kiruna, Sweden, using a special built russian air-plane since last year, and made their first "space-tourist"-flights this year in April (at least they were supposed to but I couldn't find a source actually confirming it with my 5 minutes of googling...). One of the people from there made a presentation at my university in December and said they charged ~$/4000 for it. They are also supposed to used special equipment and lighting inside the cabin to make the flight even more interesting than just having low gravity.
Give me a job. Please?
Is this in any way related to the "airtime" you get on a good rollercoaster?
hmmm.... ok, I understand the difference. I guess zero gravity is not experienced anywhere in the universe then. I can't come up with any location in the entire universe where there is pure "zero gravity."
The zero-g test plane didn't get the nickname "Vomit Comet" for nothing. Almost EVERYBODY gets sick their first time, even the hard-core right-stuff guys.
Notable Exception: Crista McAuliffe, the teacher killed in the Columbia shuttle explosion, was the only member of her zero-g training group who didn't barf.
Well, not exactly for free. I put a crapload of effort into it.
I got to fly in the the Weightless Wonder (aka V**** C****) as part of a collegiate student program this past April. All told, we flew 30 micro-g parabolas, 1 lunar parabola, and 1 martian parabola. Let me say this: roller coasters, jumping cars over hills, even piloting gliders do not come close to comparing. Even when piloting an aircraft, you don't have the ability to get up and move around...there's that darn steering part to take care of.
For $3000, if the track record and maintenence records are clean, I would definitely do it again (granted I plan ahead for this as simply an expensive vacation). Especially since I won't have to be preoccupied with any experiments.
Might I suggest: anyone who is in a science-based major in college should try to come up with an experiment that would yield "intriguing" results when flown in microgravity. Remember, each trial must last a maximum of 25 seconds. And the more hands-off (and more automated), the better...that just means more fun for you.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
*DING*DING*DING*DING*DING*
That sound means that it's time for you to get a life.
would be interesting to find out if i'm actually right..
time to start saving!
I've done both, and the closest you are going to get to true freefall without use of an aircraft, is scuba diving.
That's exactly what I was going to say!
I would argue that diving is a more pleasant experience, especially due to the normal-high-low-high swings in the aircraft. Even without puking, though, not being able to control your position or attitude kind of sucks (moreso since you need to be on your feet in 20 seconds or you're going to land hard). In the training they point out that the first thing you're going to do your first time in low-g is to hit the guy next to you as you try to 'swim' to control your attitude. It doesn't work, you just flail madly until you hit a solid object.
Aside from control, the floating sensation you get on the airplane is very similar to floating under water (very relaxing, it's nice). You can move faster in the airplane, allowing flips and spins that don't work well under water, though.
Skydiving, on the other hand, is very fast, very violent (for lack of a better term), and has strong forces applied to you. I don't consider it relaxing. It is absolutely nothing like a reduced-gravity aircraft.
There *is* no gravity - the earth sucks.
Mod parent informative... that's the exact definition of "ORBIT". An object in orbit is constantly falling but moving laterally fast enough that it's always missing the earth (ie relative to the falling object, the earth is always moving out of its way).
- Thomas;
___ This sig is in boldface to emphasize its importance!
Look here: http://www.bierl.at/parabelflug/ has been offering this for EUR 700 (USD 875) for a long time. I also know a few commercial airline pilots who do this on deadhead flights. They say the flight attendants hate it...
Who said I was anywhere near Ellington Field? I am at NASA Glenn Research Center, which is the focus of microgravity research within NASA. The KC-135 (which used to be housed at Glenn) flies up here to pick up the research modules. It's here right now.
I think you should apologize for labeling me a troll.
Life is pain. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.
I have been skydiving twice (static line), and I have over two hours of accumulated zero-g time in the Vomit Comet. The two experiences are not at all similar.
The initial sensation from jumping out of an airplane is one of complete sensory overload; your body just does not know what is happening to it, and doesn't know how to respond. After that, you're rushing towards the ground at high speed. Imagine sticking your head out the window at over 100 MPH on the freeway to get a rough idea of the feeling. With the static line, the free-fall portion of the dive lasted only a few seconds, but it was still enough to experience the feeling.
Flying parabolas is much more calm, except that the airplane engines can be rather loud during the pull-up (1.8 g) phase. You're constantly rotating: pitching up during high g and pitching down during low g. Flying around in zero-g doesn't make you sick; rather, it's the transitions from zero to 1.8 and vice versa that make you sick. Because you alternate back and forth between the two, you actually get used to the feelings of weightlessness and heaviness pretty quickly, but that doesn't make it any less fun. My experiments required a lot of attention, and so often the primary thing that reminded me I was in zero g was the fact that I had to hold on to something to keep from floating away. The most fun thing I did was fly lengthwise down the airplane, like Superman. Spinning is a blast too.
If you get the chance, I highly recommend trying both, as they're each unique experiences!
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