Testing Spacecraft Booms in ZeroG

The ZeroG Flight Experience

In the final year of my undergraduate studies, I had the wonderful opportunity to go on the “Vomet Comet,” or zero-g flight. A zero gravity flight, also known as a zero-g flight or a weightless flight, is an experience in which an aircraft creates a state of weightlessness for a short period of time. This is usually achieved by following a parabolic flight path, during which the aircraft first climbs steeply and then dips down rapidly, creating a temporary period of weightlessness as it reaches the top of the arc. Zero-g flights are used for a variety of purposes, including scientific research, astronaut training, and the development of new technologies. They can also be offered as a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience for members of the general public, for the meager price of $7,000. During a zero-g flight, passengers may float and experience weightlessness, similar to what an astronaut would experience in space.

In the US, all engineering students undergo a final test of their skills called Senior Design. Senior design is the final grind for engineering students who are tasked with creating a product idea and fully developing it. My team’s senior design project was to build a telemetry system to characterize a small boom to be used on CubeSats.

Booms are small mechanical arms used to extend instruments away from electronic noise generated from a spacecraft’s body. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my team) it is impossible to test new technologies in space because once your system is deployed, you can’t go and service any problems that arise. Unlike the Hubble Telescope, NASA isn’t really interested in sending astronauts to go and fix small mechanical booms that don’t function properly. Instead, we go on zero-g flights where we can test our equipment for less than 30 seconds in real zero-g.

My senior design team built software to record the exact position and acceleration of a small boom developed in the Iowa Physics & Astronomy department. We then fed these signals into a modeling software so the mechanical engineers could analyze their work. To test this system, we flew 30 parabolas in a Boeing 727. The first 10 parabolas simulated Martian gravity, the second 10 simulated lunar gravity, and the final 10 were close to true zero gravity. Per NASA Technology, here is a short clip of our work:

Magnetic field measurements are critical for forecasting space weather. @milesmags from @uiowa tested the CubeSat Articulated Boom Option Optimization in Microgravity – or CABOOM – a lightweight, deployable boom that could reduce interference from spacecraft noise. 📹: @GoZeroG pic.twitter.com/jEg7mncy4T

— NASA Technology (@NASA_Technology) May 12, 2021

Needless to say, the “Vomet Comet” lives up to its name. The two-hour flight was harrowing. Of our five team members, two spent the entire ride in the back of the plane. Incidentally, the two team members who got sick were the mechanical engineers. All three electrical engineers stuck it through to the end, a true feat of heroism and endurance.

Overall, the zero-g experience was an incredible experience that everyone should fight tooth and nail to try if they get the opportunity. My team was lucky enough to test Martian, Lunar, and true Zero-G. I have to say that Lunar gravity is by far the most fun, as you get to feel like you’re flying but still have full control. If you can’t make a zero-g flight, don’t worry about it. Scuba diving is much more fun, and incredibly similar to the feeling of weightlessness I experienced during my flight.

Our team of students and engineers from David Miles Space Physics Lab.