Zero-Gravity Sports League In Development

Jonathan writes "A company that provides weightless flights to paying space tourists is developing a league around a sport that is designed for a zero-G environment." From the article: "The sport is called 'Paraball'...originally short for Parabolic Football," Persaud told SPACE.com. "The game really isn't like football anymore as the rules have developed, but the name has stuck," he added. [..] "The International Parabolic Sports League (IPSL) I plan to start with seven U.S. based teams, plus one Toronto-based team. Initially all League games would be played from the Las Vegas, Nevada airport, but we'll have 'home' games when the Zero-Gravity Corporation are able to bring their aircraft to that many cities over the time span of the league's season."

Comments

Vomit comet meets competitive TV sports

[rednip]

It'll be the only team sport where a airplane crash would take out both teams, the officials, and staff. Seriously, does anyone know how safe these fights are?

Re:Vomit comet meets competitive TV sports

[spacefight]

An airplane crash can kill both teams, the officials and staff on countless other sport events if targeted accurate enough.

Re:Vomit comet meets competitive TV sports

[motorbikematt]

The flights are pretty darn safe. I am a flight coach for ZeroG and I can attest that our pilots and flight crew are some of the best. The flight crew are an excellent bunch of cargo aircraft pilots that have undergone extensive training for parabolic flight. Parabolas that can produce zero gravity in the cabin require a skill and talent that is hard to come by. We've got experts, and I'd argue that they are AT LEAST as good as the NASA folks. As for the aircraft, ZeroG has gone through years of proving to the FAA that they are safe to fly. All aircraft mods have been approved by a Supplemental Type Certificate, and we have been granted permission to fly under Part 121 of FAA regulations. Moreover, NASA has been flying these types of flights with the KC-135, a DC-9, and other aircraft in the past, and have flown without any major incidents. As for the folks in the back of the aircraft, the flight director, coaches and FAA certified Flight Attendant, we are all experienced parabolic flyers, and typically we also fly with an an astronaut. Personally, I have flown with NASA several times, and I can say that my goal is to be at least as good as the experts currently at Johnson Space Center. Point is, we've all got 'parabola legs' if you will, and I think we do a pretty darn good job taking care of our customers in the tourism, entertainment, and research sectors. Have any questions...Look me up and email me.

Re:Vomit comet meets competitive TV sports

[motorbikematt]

is a minor death just one teammate death?

Well, I suppose that actually depends upon the Fantasy Paraball rankings ;)

Re:Another exclusive club forming:

[luvirini]

More like 100 mile high club.. but I think the mechanics might get difficult with not gravity to hold you together..

So how do you play?

[pjt33]

It would be nice if the article gave a few details about the sport - just basic stuff like the number of balls or players involved.

Practical Though?

[heli0]

"It wasn't a dark game, but it wasn't a bright one either-the lights were about half, like dusk. In the distance, in the dim light, he could see the enemy door, their lighted flash suits already pouring out. Ender knew a moments pleasure. Everyone had learned from Bonzo's misuse of Ender Wiggin. They all jumped through the door immediately, so that there was no chance to do anything other than name the formation they would use."

Why invent a new sport?

[vitalyb]

The battle-school sport in Ender's Game is complex enough.

I can even think of a few ways for the freezing guns.

pastime for the idle rich

[pedantic bore]

I thought polo and yachting were the sports for people with too much money and time on their hands. Well, I guess times change.

Anyone want to partner with me to develop league of swimming hamsters or weight-lifting mice? Those are sports we can all enjoy (watching, anyway). They could be the WWF of the 21st century.

But wait, let me patent that, first.

large blobs in space

[digitaldc]

In his research on space sports, Collins and colleagues have speculated about water sports where space tourists can dive through large blobs of water.

In other news, many games eventually end up turning in to an impromptu old school favorite - 'dodgevomit.'

Short games...

[3D Monkey]

Now if only we had a way to simulate Zero-G for longer than 20 seconds

Otherwise I see some really short games with some really motion-sick players.

Safety vs Entertainment?

[ImaLamer]

I don't know if I can take the ups and downs that come with parabolic football...

(maniacal laughter)

Waitaminute ... this sounds familiar ...

[ggvaidya]

Paraball is seen as a cross of several sports...and has a lot of unique aspects too.

Calvinball!!!

Re:Meanwhile, still no cure for cancer.

[JorDan Clock]

God forbid people devote their time to things other than solving all of mans problems. Besides, you obviously have time to post on Slashdot instead of contributing to the greater good of man.

Re:Who Cares.

[Hatta]

Until then, it's just a media whore stunt.

ALL sports are just media whore stunts. None of that shit matters at all. Really! It's sad that so much effort and money is wasted in this pointless enterprise.

The losing team...

[oaksey]

The losing team should get tossed out of the plane (with parachutes of course), with the winners just getting flown straight home. Would make it a bit more dramatic for TV.

Xenon + Oxygen = Swim in Breathable Gas!

[Sigfried]

In "The Inventions of Daedalus", scientist and author David E. Jones points out that Xenon is a noble gas with a density greater than water. If you combine Xenon with oxygen and put it in a really big tank, you will have a breathable gas in a tank, in which human being can float. By combining xenon with appropriate amounts of nitrogen, you can get the density close to that of humans, and it will be similar to weightlessness. Wikipedia points out that Xenon has some anaesthetic effects, which would come in handy for those bruising scrimmages...

Name of the 'sport'

[Perey]

"The game really isn't like football anymore as the rules have developed, but the name has stuck," he added.

Ahh, much like American 'football' then?

Can it be performed in 30ish seconds?

[everphilski]

Cause thats all you got in a vomit comet...

-everphilski-

Re:Another exclusive club forming:

[ozmanjusri]

but I think the mechanics might get difficult with not gravity to hold you together.

Some of us are developing "handles" to alleviate that problem.

Re:Who Cares.

[SeaFox]

If people find sports entertaining and it increases their quality of life to watch them, I don't have a problem with it.

I don't think the parent has a problem with sports themselves, just how much money and effort are poured into them. All over the country you have cities passing bond measures and tax increases to renovate stadiums that in some cases haven't even made back their original construction costs. It's become a neverending cycle of the cities working to outdo each other on the fanciest complex. Then, if a city has more than one professional team, they have to build new complexes for the other sports, too. Meanwhile these same cities have crime issues, homelessness, crumbling sewer infastructure.

I'm all for an enjoyable sports experience, but sometimes it's just more money than necessary for something that's really unnecessary.

More on Zero-G; John Carmack's thoughts

[FleaPlus]

The article didn't have too much info on Zero-G's service, so I thought I'd chime in. Basically, Zero-G sells flights on their modified Boeing 727 at $3,750 each. Each flight has a total of 15 parabolas, which alternate between 1.8 g's and either zero g's, lunar g's, or martian g's; each of the low/zero gravity periods lasts 30 seconds.

John Carmack, of id Software fame, flew with Zero-G last year and wrote down some of his thoughts. He was pretty pleased with it, and got some ideas for his spaceflight company. He also recorded a video of messing around in zero-gravity. Here's an excerpt from his write-up:

The time went by so quickly that you completely forgot half the things you planned on trying. A couple of us were doing low gravity judo throws, and I took a shot at the worlds first flying armbar in zero gravity (didn't work out too well). Most of us that were doing fairly aggressive bouncing around landed on our heads at least once, so I have some concern that they will eventually have someone test the liability waiver. The bottom line is that I highly recommend the experience, and I am almost certainly going to do it again at some point.

Some pictures and video of ZeroG parabolic flight

[motorbikematt]

Here's the link to our website: www.nogravity.com

Here's a link to some of the photos taken on board with some of our tourists: zero-g.smugmug.com

Here's a link to a recent local news video covering our very first flights from KSC: www.wesh.com/spacenews/5267185/detail.html

And, for those of you who watched American TV last night, you would have seen us on NBC's Three Wishes and if you're really a couch potato, you've seen us on The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, and The Rebel Millionare

Re:Some pictures and video of ZeroG parabolic flig

[DigiShaman]

You know, the Porn industry would pay you guys' big bucks!!! Think about it; a new DVD titled "Zero-G Spot" or something. I mean, video of zero-g sex in action would be very unique to the market. Talk about a venture partnership to capitalize on.

Also, imagine Zero-G fighting championships. Ohh AWSOME idea! Spike TV would love this. Hell, a new martial art might even be formed out of it (bouncing off walls and stuff to go for that headlock). The kicks, punches, rebounds *drool*