Walking On The Moon At 30,000 Feet - Space.com Trains Like An Astronaut In Wild Ride - video Dailymotion

Space.com

There is only one way to experience lunar gravity while still on Earth, or rather a few thousand feet above its surface: on a parabolic flight. In this exclusive mini-documentary, Space.com reporter Tereza Pultarova takes to the sky with a bunch of European scientists and one astronaut to get a taste of being on the moon, but the journey proves more challenging than she expected.  Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: European Space Agency/Novespace/NASA A Future Studios Production

Transcript

00:00Humans are returning to the Moon.

00:03They haven't been there for more than 50 years.

00:06But how do you prepare for a visit to such a different world, where your body weighs

00:10only one-sixth of its earthly weight, where everything happens in slow motion, and where

00:16equipment carefully tested on our planet can surprise you in many unexpected ways?

00:23It turns out that there is one way to experience the feeling of being on the Moon while still

00:28on Earth, or rather a few thousand feet above its surface.

00:32Hello, I'm Teresa Poultarova and I'm a senior writer at Space.com and today I'm here

00:39at Bordeaux Airport in France.

00:42And behind me is a very interesting aircraft.

00:46It's an Airbus A310.

00:48Since 2015, the French company Novespas has been using this plane to conduct parabolic flights,

00:55that is flights that simulate weightlessness or reduced gravity, such as lunar gravity

01:00or Martian gravity.

01:02And tomorrow I'm going to take part in one such flight.

01:06Parabolic flights are best known for simulating weightlessness.

01:09You must have seen footage of people floating around the aircraft cabin.

01:14Pilots create these brief spells of no gravity by putting the plane into short, carefully calculated

01:21periods of free fall, as they follow a wild up-and-down trajectory of steep climbs and nerve-wracking

01:27dives.

01:28But it turns out, that if you fly the parabola just a little differently, you end up feeling

01:33like on the Moon, or on Mars.

01:37Apparently, this plane is the largest in the world that can be used for parabolic flights.

01:46The cabin has been stripped of almost all of its internal equipment.

01:50There are only a few seats left and there are almost no lockers on board.

01:54I'm meeting Eric Dele Salle, Novespas chief pilot and captain of my flight.

02:00With nearly 30 years of experience piloting parabolic flights, Dele Salle is one of only

02:05eight European men capable of executing these flights with such accuracy that generates reduced

02:11gravity with scientific precision.

02:16Hello, I'm Teresa from space.com.

02:20Would you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?

02:22I will be on the flight tomorrow and I'm quite nervous about the whole thing.

02:25No, it's absolutely no problem.

02:27It's a great pleasure.

02:28Please have a seat, Teresa.

02:29I'm Eric Dele Salle, I will be the captain for the flight tomorrow.

02:32Wonderful.

02:33So can you tell me a little bit what's going to happen tomorrow?

02:36Where are we going to fly and what are we going to do?

02:39Tomorrow we will fly near the coast, the Atlantic coast, far from Bordeaux.

02:46We will be flying flights that simulate lunar and Martian gravity, is that true?

02:54Yes, it will not be a simulation.

02:57It will be a real apparent gravity that we have on Moon or on Mars.

03:04So what makes a difference between a parabola that gives you the lunar gravity and the

03:09Martian gravity or no gravity at all?

03:12It's just a matter of how much we push on the stick.

03:16If I give you a ball and please throw it in such a way it will stay as long as possible in the air.

03:22So you will throw it up and then from the time you release the ball, it will become to fall even,

03:31if still climbing at the beginning in the sun.

03:34And then we have the zero.

03:37We just push so that the aircraft will pull up first and then when we reach a given altitude,

03:46we push on the stick so that the aircraft will do that as if it was falling down in the vacuum.

03:53That is for the zero.

03:55And for to keep Luna, it will be a little less trump and much even less.

04:03Unlike on your regular flight, there will be four pilots on board,

04:07three of them actively controlling the aircraft at the same time.

04:11One pilot will be in charge of the plane's pitch.

04:14The other will control its roll.

04:17The third will act on the throttle.

04:19After each set of parabolas, one pilot will take a break and will be replaced with a spare.

04:26The difficulty is to be very accurate and that's our objective.

04:31So we share the three axes and the aircraft between the three pilots.

04:37So one is flying the pitch and it is making the zero g or the moon or Mars gravity.

04:45And we use this kind of thing here that we put here like that.

04:53I plug that to have the radio and then so from now on this pilot can only act on the pitch

05:02and I cannot do that with that. You see this one you can do both pitch and roll and with this one

05:11I can only use pitch.

05:14And during that time the other pilot will use a very

05:22technical equipment, these two things here.

05:26And it can act on the roll without pulling or pushing so that the two pilots are flying the aircraft

05:38at the same time. And the third pilot is acting on the throttle.

05:43Let's go back in the cabin. Preparations for tomorrow's flight are in full swing here as well.

05:4910 scientific teams from all over Europe are installing their equipment, making sure it's secured

05:57in a way that it won't pose any risk during our wild ride. Here I'm meeting Neil Melville,

06:03the European Space Agency's parabolic flight campaign coordinator, who will serve as my minder,

06:10making sure that I, the rookie flyer, won't cause too much chaos during the flight.

06:16We are doing some real science here, some fundamental science, but also some technology

06:22tests and demonstrations because these flights are going to be very special. They're about lunar

06:26gravity and Martian gravity. So we're testing hardware and systems that we're really going to take

06:31to the moon to see if we can get them working the way we want in a much kind of cheaper and easier

06:36environment than flying all the way to the moon with it. So are there any other ways how we can

06:41simulate lunar gravity on earth apart from being on a plane like this? It's not easy at all. There are

06:48a couple of like drop tower type solutions that can do lunar gravity on a very, very small scale,

06:53but only for a couple of seconds and only for hardware. If you want to get yourself, to get people

07:00into lunar gravity, you have two options. You can either come on this aircraft or you can go to the moon.

07:05That's it. That was all really interesting. I think I've seen enough today and we will be back

07:12tomorrow in the morning. Good morning. I'm back at Bordeaux airport. It's the 25th of April 2023,

07:228 in the morning and today is actually my 40th birthday and I'm going to celebrate it in style.

07:28Right now I'm waiting to receive my anti-vomiting medication. Parabolic flights are sometimes called

07:36the vomit comet and I will be honest with you. Do you remember that kid that used to throw up on every

07:43school trip? That was me. But never mind, this drug that I'm just going to receive cuts the risk of nausea

07:51to one in 10 people. So let's hope that it works for me as well. I also need to change into my flight

07:57suit and now I'm ready to go. We will fly west of Bordeaux above the Atlantic Ocean, climbing to the

08:05altitude of about 20,000 feet. That's below the cruising altitude of commercial airliners,

08:12but well above the altitude frequented by lighter aircraft. Our pilots will then perform four sets of

08:18seven to eight parabolas, two lunar sets and two Martian sets. In between we will have only three

08:25five to eight minute breaks. This is partial G. It's a little bit different to what we normally fly for

08:32those that have flown before with us. Please make sure you pay attention to the safety crew. Make sure

08:38that we all stay healthy and safe during the flight. Right, we are ready to go. Each parabola starts with a

08:45climb at a 50 degree angle to the altitude of nearly 30,000 feet. You can hear the engines roar. The

08:52acceleration pins your body into the floor with double the force of Earth's gravity. It's a peculiar feeling.

09:00But it lasts only about 20 seconds.

09:0230. 40. 40. Injection.

09:08Then, injection. The engines stop. Silence. Everything slows down. Experienced scientists don't waste any time.

09:20But the rookies like myself can get a little carried away. Welcome to the moon.

09:25It feels magical. This is seriously cool. The 2G is not that cool. I need to lie down.

09:34The plane is descending. Our bodies get pinned down again. The experienced flyers stop in their tracks.

09:42Us rookies seek a more comfortable position on the floor. Then about a minute and a half of steady flight.

09:49Normal gravity. And then it starts again.

09:54I brought with me a lunar gravity indicator. It's a soft toy moon handmade specifically for this occasion

10:01by my colleague Daisy Dobrievic. In lunar gravity, it spins and bounces like in slow motion.

10:09Gradually, I'm gaining more confidence. Lunar gravity feels good. But what will remain hard for me until the

10:16very end are the 2G phases before and after the reduced gravity. Wow, it's really quite interesting.

10:24The 2G during the pull-up feels a little funny. But yeah, wow, amazing.

10:32For now, I won't allow that to stop me enjoying this otherworldly experience.

10:37Now it feels as if I only weigh 10 kilos.

10:40It's time for our first break. We are receiving a very special visitor. One of our pilots has a break

11:01and has come to see the experiments. He might look a little familiar. These days, he is better known

11:08for flying to the International Space Station. One of our pilots today is actually the astronaut Tomas

11:14Peske. I'm not kidding. Could you say hi to space.com readers? Sure. Hi everyone. Nice to fly with you today.

11:20So we're on this flight that is simulating lunar gravity. What role will these flights have in the future

11:26Mars-Moon exploration? Well, it's here that we're testing everything. As you can tell around you,

11:31there's the technology, there's the engineering, the science, not so much the astronauts, but they'll

11:36come at some point to train, also to prepare for those flights and get a taste of what it's going

11:40to be like to walk on the moon. That's the only place on Earth that you can test with people around

11:46their experiments and experience what it feels like to walk on the moon. So that's where it starts.

11:51And it's all going to happen up there. And while I'm trying to survive the uncomfortable 2G

11:56phase on the padded floor again, Thomas Peske has a go piloting a device that might one day help

12:03astronauts transport equipment on the moon's surface. For me, things are soon going to get a little

12:11difficult. We're more than halfway through. We have finished all our lunar parabolas and also one set of

12:17the Martian parabolas and we still have one Martian set to go. I find the 2G during the pull-up

12:26particularly challenging, but so far so good. I didn't have to use my back yet, so it's all good.

12:34Despite the strong medicine that I had received before the flight, I lived up to my childhood reputation

12:40and once again was the sickest kid on the trip. But in the meantime, all science teams completed their

12:46tasks without much difficulty. When the final parabola finally arrived, I was relieved. 1G felt good.

12:54It was a two-hour roller coaster and certainly the most intense thing I have done in my whole life.

13:01It would take me a while to process the experience.

13:16So now I know what it feels like to walk on the moon and Mars. I will certainly remember this experience

13:24for the rest of my life. But right now, I'm quite happy to have my feedback on the ground of our very

13:30special planet Earth. Thank you for watching.

Walking On The Moon At 30,000 Feet - Space.com Trains Like An Astronaut In Wild Ride

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