Students experience zero gravity onboard flight Stephen Hawking felt weightlessness

The winners of the Mars 2117 Programme's initiative 'Zero Gravity competition', launched by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), have carried out various experiments under different levels of gravity on board a parabolic flight in Florida, which is often dubbed as the 'Vomit Comet'.
A total of 14 students experienced zero-gravity aboard a Boeing 727, the same flight that the late Stephen Hawking, physicist and author of A Brief History of Time, took to experience weightlessness and where a few scenes for the Apollo 13 movie were filmed.
Indian student Thendral Kamal was one of the students who won the trip to the US, which was from October 2 to October 4, and carried out her experiment on the flight.
"It was about a ball connected at the bottom of the apparatus to a magnet. You may expect the ball go floating to the top, but, I expect something else," she said, ahead of carrying out the experiment.
American student, Avinash Raju, said: "My experiment was based on intermediate moments of inertia. I tried several test objects at different lengths and heights as well as different masses."
Aayah Kakmar, Emirati, said: "I tried to prove that momentum cannot be created nor destroyed. The first thing I tried on the zero gravity flight was a somersault."
Meanwhile, Emirati student Shamma Ali, said her experiment aimed studying different fluid forces under different gravity.
The students were chosen by MBRSC based on the quality of their submissions to the competition. The applicants were required to answer a few questions, as well as submit a proposal of the type of experiment they would like to conduct onboard if they were chosen.
Adnan Al Rais, Mars 2117 programme manager at the MBRSC, said: "MBRSC strives to encourage youth to participate in national space programmes. Our space programmes aim to prepare and train youth to serve future national space exploration strategies and initiatives. Participants were involved in a series of manoeuvres that raise the front of the plane while flying at sharp angles. During the manoeuvre, the passenger tests 22 seconds of zero gravity. This experience is used to prepare astronauts for space travel in advance, before conducting space missions for the first time. It has also been tested by many scientists, such as Stephen Hawking."
Meanwhile, Yousuf Hamad Al Shaibani, director-general of MBRSC said: "The Zero Gravity Experience opens doors for participants to test an unrivalled experience through a flight aboard a Boeing 727, as part of the ongoing global initiative to support space research."
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com