2023 NASA SEES Intern, Zoe Zlatic, was featured on Fox2Now on February 21, 2024 to talk about the experiment she will be conducting on a Zero-G flight scheduled for March 8, 2024. Zoe, along with three other 2023 NASA SEES Interns, were selected among the 96 on-site interns from the high school summer internship program last year.
The four students selected to fly their experiments are:
- London Franklin, “Utilizing Polyethylene and Water in Spacesuits as Radiation Shielding Materials for Astronaut Protection“
- Aaron Kingslien, “Repelling the Dust: Advancing Extravehicular Mobility Unit Design Through Comparative Fabric Analysis and Electrostatic Lunar Dust Repulsion“
- Landry McRoy, “Abnormal Cardiovascular Study in Microgravity“
- Zoe Zlatic, “Testing Procter & Gamble’s Water Purification Powder in Micro and Artificial Gravity“
In specially designated area the aircraft flies horizontally at the height of 6 000 meters, then it climbs at 45 degrees angle and during the ascend lasting for about 15 seconds all flight participants experience g-loads up to 2g.
At the height of 9 000 meters the pilot thrusts down and the aircraft performs coasting flight. As soon as inertia force and gravity opposite to each other are equal everything inside the aircraft becomes weightless.
Weightlessness lasts for 22-28 seconds depending on the flight conditions. After that the pilot pulls out and the aircraft starts dipping down at the same angle (45 degrees), flight participants experience g-loads again. Upon completion of this maneuver the participants have some time to rest and the pilot starts performing it again.
On the whole the aircraft can perform 10-15 parabolas during the flight. Weightlessness conditions created during parabolic flight are similar to those in space that is why this is the training Russian cosmonauts and astronauts have to pass in the course of the spaceflight preparations.