Aerobatic Flight: an innovative access to microgravity from a centennial sport
- Paper number
IAC-08.A2.3.12
- Author
Dr. Antoni Perez-Poch, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
- Coauthor
Mr. Daniel Ventura-Gonzalez, Aeroclub Barcelona-Sabadell, Spain
- Year
2008
- Abstract
We report a first systematic approach to access to microgravity for experimental research, by using an aerobatic plane conducting controlled parabolic maneuvres. This innovative approach has the advantage of a direct and inexpensive access to at least five consecutive seconds of microgravity. Although the quality of the microgravity attained may be lower than that in conventional vomit comet parabollas, we believe that this strategy may provide researchers with direct and first prototyping use of microgravity in serious research experiments. Aerobatic flight, a specialized area of general aviation, is defined as “precise maneuvering in three-dimensional space.” Maneuvering is broken down to three components—position, velocity, and attitude. A textbook aerobatic aircraft's position would be precisely controlled along all three axes (pitch, roll, and yaw) and could be quickly reoriented to any other position. An idealized example of a true aerobatic vehicle can be conceptualized by observing the Space Shuttle Orbiter's ability to maneuver on all three axes when operating in the weightless vacuum of space and using this image as a yardstick to measure earthbound aerobatic maneuvers. We conducted at Aeroclub Barcelona-Sabadell (Catalonia, Spain) a series of six parabolic manuevres with a CAP-10B aerobatic plane. More than five seconds of microgravity time per parabolla were achieved, with less than 3.8g at pull-in and less than 3.2g at pull-out. The experiment conducted was a validation of NELME, an electrical-like model of physiological effects in microgravity which has been developed in our laboratory. We report results from this validation, which will enable the model to get data from an inexpensive and direct access campaigh, as well as a systematic protocol to conduct operations with a CAP-10B aeorobatic plane. The cost of this strategy may be estimated by less than a thousand of the cost of a conventional parabollic flight campaign.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.A2.3.12.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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