Abstract
Parabolic flights provide cost-effective, time-limited access to “weightless” or reduced gravity conditions, facilitating research and validation activities that complement infrequent and costly access to space. Although parabolic flights have been conducted for decades, reference acceleration profiles and processing methods are not widely available. Here we present a solution for collecting, analyzing, and classifying the altered gravity environments experienced during parabolic flights, which we validated during a Boeing 727-200F flight with 20 parabolas. All data and analysis code are freely available. Our solution can be integrated with diverse experimental designs, does not depend upon accelerometer orientation, and allows unsupervised classification of all phases of flight, providing a consistent and open-source approach to quantifying gravito-inertial accelerations (GIA), or g levels. As academic, governmental, and commercial use of space advances, data availability and validated processing methods will enable better planning, execution, and analysis of parabolic flight experiments, and thus facilitate future space activities.
Highlights
Parabolic flights are cost-effective, ground-based analogs that achieve variable g (Earth-relative gravito-inertial accelerations (GIA)) level environments that recreate conditions experienced during space flight.[1,2]
Parabolic flights serve as valuable proving grounds for experimental efforts to maximize the research potential of the International Space Station[3,4] and to accommodate increasing interest in commercial space flight.[5,6]
We address the limited availability of open access acceleration datasets containing parabolic flight profiles and enable unsupervised and precise characterization of timing and g levels for all flight phases
Summary
Parabolic flights are cost-effective, ground-based analogs that achieve variable g (Earth-relative GIA) level environments that recreate conditions experienced during space flight.[1,2] Specialized aircraft can maintain approximately 20–30 s of a 0 g, freefall environment before an increased GIA recovery phase (Fig. 1a). Parabolic flights are cost-effective, ground-based analogs that achieve variable g (Earth-relative GIA) level environments that recreate conditions experienced during space flight.[1,2]. We address the limited availability of open access acceleration datasets containing parabolic flight profiles and enable unsupervised and precise characterization of timing and g levels for all flight phases. We demonstrate this approach using a small (65 g) battery powered commercially available accelerometer and vibration measurement system. Together, these tools and products reflect a comprehensive solution for experiment planning, execution, and analysis of g level and vibrations during parabolic flight
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