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Space

Zero Gravity Flights for the Rest of Us 332

Posted by CmdrTaco from the take-a-ride-on-the-vomit-comit dept.
waynegoode writes "Zero G Corporation, whose motto is "Question Gravity", is now offering zero gravity flights to the general public. For $3000 you get training and a 90 minute ride with 15 periods of 25 seconds of low or zero-gravity: 3 1/3 Mars gravity, 3 1/6 Lunar gravity, and 9 zero gravity. Peter Diamandis, the man behind the Ansari X Prize, worked 11 years to get FAA approval. Previously, such flights were available only to astronauts, researchers, and Tom Hanks; although recently flights for the public began Russia for about twice the price. Story also here."
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Zero Gravity Flights for the Rest of Us More

Zero Gravity Flights for the Rest of Us

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  • And I thought... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nos. ( 179609 ) <andrew@nOSPAm.thekerrs.ca> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @12:55PM (#10248019) Homepage
    The porn industry would do it first!
    Come to think about it, maybe they'll start using this as well, though 25 seconds isn't very long.

  • Or... (Score:5, Funny)

    by FortKnox ( 169099 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @12:55PM (#10248025) Homepage Journal
    Simply take a bottle full of Ipecac and save yourself a few thousand dollars.

  • Wow, when I want to throw up.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by wolfemi1 ( 765089 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @12:56PM (#10248029)
    ...I just drink copious amounts of Jagermeister. Works like a charm, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

  • Question Gravity? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Soko ( 17987 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @12:56PM (#10248031) Homepage
    "Gravity isn't just a good idea, it's the law" - Author Unknown

    Now, to gravitate to the story...

    Soko

  • It sounds nice... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by east coast ( 590680 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @12:57PM (#10248052)
    Consider that sky-diving can also offer you zero-g styled environment and it almost seems like a ripoff. If you were doing serious research it would be worth the cash but just for the sensation of free fall you can do better for less.

    • Re:It sounds nice... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mbrother ( 739193 ) <mbrother.uwyo@edu> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:01PM (#10248110) Homepage
      Sky-diving offers a very very windy free-fall experience that I can't imagine is really comparable at all. Maybe it's close enough at just under 1/10 the price (locally sky diving costs about $200 in Colorado for a first-time thing).

    • Re:It sounds nice... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Xoro ( 201854 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:02PM (#10248119)

      Consider that sky-diving can also offer you zero-g styled environment

      Not really, because in skydiving the local atmosphere is not falling at the same rate as you. I would expect the sensations to be very different.

      • Not too mention that some of us do not find the idea of throwing oneself out of a perfectly good airplane a particularly thrilling one, especially when you have to pay for it! For people who are afraid of heights, this may be the only way we would ever experience free-fall in perceived safety. There is a big difference between throwing yourself out into the open air with only a parachute to save you and falling within an enclosed space which (you hope) is under control.

    • As a skydiver, once you exit the airplane (usually a plane traveling at around 100 mph) you begin to accelerate to terminal velocity which is around 120 mph. During this time, you will feel some sensation of acceleration, but it is certainly not zero-g. Your velocity vector simply moves from forward (where it was when you were on the plane) to downwards (gravity pulling on you now that there's no plane/wings to resist it). After about 10 seconds, the air resistance will fully balance the force of gravity an
    • Skydiving has a lot of wind!
    • Insightful?

      Skydiving has wind rushing by you at 140mph. There's no real sensation of weightlessness, just thirty seconds of rush followed by a nuclear wedgie.
    • In skydiving you hit terminal velocity after some time (not sure how long), at which point you are not accelerating anymore, and hence you can still 'feel' gravity pulling on you. Not to mention strong upwards winds.

      In the zero-g flight, for the entire 25 seconds you are accelerating downwards at 1 g, along with the air in the ship, and everything else around you. During that time you will not notice gravity pulling you.

      Skydiving seems like it would be more fun and scenic, but the zero-g flight would

  • but with the discressionary income of allot of americans, I could see this as being a business. it's like going on a roller coaster, but with more of the wow factor! ;)

    CBdfs(setwhore-yest)

  • First person account (Score:5, Informative)

    by dane23 ( 135106 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @12:58PM (#10248071) Homepage
    Xeni Jardin, over at Boingboing.net [boingboing.net] has a ticket and is blogging the experience.

    • We've actually done the free fall experience in Cessna 172's. I think all those Cessna's are rated for 0G or even -1G or more no problem. Of course, it is no where near 25 seconds long, but we were still cackling like crazy kids.

      Simply fly long up and down swoops. When you arch over the top and start to descend, the pilot controls the rate so that everything in the cabin lifts up and floats. I spun my 35mm camera in front of me, hanging in the air, so you get a few seconds. Quite a rush.

  • Excellent! Exciting! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mbrother ( 739193 ) <mbrother.uwyo@edu> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @12:58PM (#10248074) Homepage
    That's relatively affordable for the uniqueness of the experience. And hey, maybe even more affordable. Since I write science fiction novels with such low-gravity and free-fall environments, I bet I could write this off! Whoo hoo!

  • Zero G on the Cheep! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:00PM (#10248092) Homepage Journal
    Just find a road with some small hills and go fast enough to just become airborne. Always got a kick out of that as a kid in the back of my parents station wagon. May be short lived, but it's cheep!

    • Re:Zero G on the Cheep! (Score:5, Funny)

      by east coast ( 590680 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:01PM (#10248106)
      Just find a road with some small hills and go fast enough to just become airborne

      Trampolines work too... not for the car tho...

    • Re:Zero G on the Cheep! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Just Some Guy ( 3352 ) <kirk+slashdot@strauser.com> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @02:15PM (#10248920) Homepage Journal
      Don't. Please.

      I lost friends in high school to "hill topping". In a controlled environment it could be pretty fun, but there are far too many ways to Darwin yourself:

      1. Be a few degrees from parallel to the direction of the road when you get air. By the time you land, you're displaced laterally from your driving lane by several feet in either direction. Oncoming cars or fixed barriers suck when you're airborne at ballistic speeds.
      2. Discover a loose farm animal standing in the middle of the road. Brakes work poorly when you're not in contact with the driving surface.
      3. Any other permutation of "inadvertent change in velocity vector", "large object", and "non-acceleration due to lack of friction"

      I dare say that the "vomit comet" is far safer than jumping your car on some hill out on the middle of nowhere.

    • The public road is far too uncontrolled. And everyone outside of trained stunt drivers are too uncontrolled as well.

      My (our) roads are not your playground.
  • Fantastic idea to make a costly modern age pr0n

  • Roller coaster ride for $30? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by peter303 ( 12292 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:03PM (#10248132)
    Wouldnt you get a similar effect on some of the larger roller coasters? You could ride one 25 times for a days admission to a theme park.

  • all about the vomit comet... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Chuck Bucket ( 142633 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:03PM (#10248134) Homepage Journal
    Flying The Vomit Comet Has Its Ups And Downs [space.com]. NOTE: article deserves props for it's title alone, but it's also very revealing about what getting to Zero G is like. Not sure if I'd want to do it, but it must be a crazy feeling.

    CB(whr=1)

  • Combine this with normal travel (Score:5, Funny)

    by cft_128 ( 650084 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:03PM (#10248138)
    It would be great, the Free Fall flights traveling, make the trips way more enjoyable. It would kick any in-flight movie's ass and I bet no one would complain about the lack of meals.

  • You can do this with a single prop plane now. (Score:3, Informative)

    by ozzmosis ( 99513 ) * <ahze@ahze.net> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:06PM (#10248162) Homepage Journal
    You can do this with a single prop plane, it'd be hard to beat 25sec but you can get a good 10sec 0 gravity in one.

    • Re:You can do this with a single prop plane now. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by runner_one ( 455793 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:33PM (#10248470)
      Yes you can, and I find it quite fun. But there is even more fun in watching the faces of your passengers while they dodge the various pieces of debris that is laying on the cabin floor of most rental planes (chewing gum wrappers, old pencils and pens, loose change and the occasional condom package from someone's mile high club attempt). These formally forgotten items once relived of the burden of gravity that is keeping them out of sight and out of mind under feet suddenly fill the cabin of the plane like the cloud of debris around a tornado. Your passengers now overloaded with experiences totally outside of anything they have ever experienced before become totally convinced in those few seconds that the aircraft is going to pieces around them, and most become total quivering blobs of jelly while calling out loudly to their deity to save them.

  • Tom Hanks (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Previously, such flights were available only to astronauts, researchers, and Tom Hanks;

    Afterwards, Tom Hanks was Quoted as Saying:
    "That's not Flying... That was Falling with Style!"

  • Wouldn't "g_gravity 0" be cheaper?! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anita Coney ( 648748 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:09PM (#10248192) Homepage
    No wait, we don't live in a virutal world! Damn!


  • I have never been sky diving, but you essentially get zero gravity while sky diving right? The only difference or course is you have the wind blowing in your face.

    For my money, if I had $3000 I would go buy a Segway scooter to ride around all day. Think how many women that would get me!
  • If you're sick, take some Nyquil and then drink a glass of wine. Go directly to bed. You'll know what 0 gravity feels like! It's so awesome and only cost about 10 bucks.

  • Other private rides on the Vomit Comet (Score:5, Informative)

    by dpilot ( 134227 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:15PM (#10248279) Homepage Journal
    Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller rode the Comet. I was even posted on Slashdot: http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=115312 &cid=9770946
    In Penn's article, he mentions another noteworthy Vomit Comet expedition: The filming of the Pr0n movie, "The Uranus Experiment."

    • Re:Other private rides on the Vomit Comet (Score:5, Informative)

      by K8Fan ( 37875 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @05:23PM (#10250653) Journal

      Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller rode the Comet.

      Yeah, I love that story! Here's Google's cache of it [64.233.161.104]...Art Bell's web site no longer has it (apparently the gray aliens told him to take it down).

      Since it's so hard to find, I might as well post the entire thing here. It's not that long:

      Learning to Fly, Strip, and Vomit on a 727

      Penn Jillette

      Since I was a kid, I've wanted to be weightless. I really wanted to go to space, but part of going to space was being weightless. Just to hold something up in front of me, and have it stay right there is the idea of magic. As I got older, I battled gravity. My start in showbiz was as a juggler. Jugglers fight gravity. The hack jugglers cover a drop with a "standard" (meaning it's been stolen so much, those who didn't write it conveniently consider it to be public domain) 'cover' (it doesn't really cover very much, they know the prop is on the floor and they know you're chasing it, bent over like you're chasing a duck) line, "Sudden gust of gravity."

      Now, that I'm 45 years old and I weight 280 pounds, gravity is a less sporting and more real enemy. I'm 6'6" tall and I still remember Leslie Fiedler writing in "Freaks, Myths of our Secret Selves" that "gravity is not kind to those who grow too large." As we get older, it seems the jockey build is healthier.

      No one knows what gravity is. I mean we just don't know. There is no good theory. A good theory in science is one that we're damn sure is true: The Earth goes around the Sun. Evolution is how we got here. No one seriously doubts those. But, gravity, well, we just don't know.

      So, right now, the only way you can feel weightless for more than a couple rollercoaster seconds is by getting far enough away from Earth, or taking the Vomit Comet. The Vomit Comet is how NASA trains astronauts (the Russians must do it too, right?). They take a big old airplane and they go up and down really fast. When they go up, you weight 1.8 times your weight, and when they go down, you weigh around 0.

      The FAA has always given NASA a monopoly on losing all your pounds of ugly fat (along with muscle, bone, and everything else). Astronauts get to ride it, some scientists get to ride it, and that's about it. Ron Howard made some backroom deal (it MUST have included sexual favors) to be able to shoot "Apollo 13," on the NASA Vomit Comet and they talked about it a bit, but it was soon quieted down. You're not REALLY supposed to use a government-funded program to make movies. Not really. I mean, I'm glad Tom, Gary, and Kevin got to fly, but if everyone really thought about it, why can't we all ride?

      A couple free-market nuts at NASA decided they LOVED Zero G, and it was time to get off the socialist tit, and buy their own Vomit Comet and start selling rides on it. Everything the Vomit Comet does in within the specs of planes, and why can't we do what Ron and Tom got to do? That was the idea.

      When they first got this harebrained scheme, I heard about it. It seems that when anyone gets a harebrained scheme, I'm CC'd on the memo. I loved nuts, I'm for nuts, I am nuts. They all get in touch with me. I told them I thought it was a great idea (and you know how much that means), and I wrote them email, gave them tickets to our show, and went to dinner with them a couple times.

      They were going to get approval to fly a 727 very fast right straight down very soon. It was going to be a matter of months. That was 6 years ago. But, I kept talking to them, and whenever they gave me a date, I said I would be there, until it fell through again. Us free-market guys are always fighting the man.

      Well, they finally fought the law and kinda sorta won. They at least won enough for me to fly. I finally did it. After 6 years of grueling cheerleading, I got be be weightless. Only about

  • Slashdot Public Service Announcement (Score:5, Informative)

    by tgd ( 2822 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:18PM (#10248312)
    To avoid the possibility any other responders to this thread demonstrate a critical need to be cracked with a cluestick:

    What a person experiences in this case is *identical* to what you'd experience in Space.

    You don't suddenly leave the Earths gravitational field in orbit and start floating around. You just fall in a parabola that happens to miss the ground.

    One would think this was common knowledge, but from the posts on here, its clearly not.
  • The earth sucks.

  • act now, and we'll include... (Score:3, Funny)

    by jpellino ( 202698 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:22PM (#10248364)
    a free Zero-G Tote Bag!

    barf bag, tote bag - don't be such a nitpicker...

  • Group discount? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Fortress ( 763470 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:31PM (#10248443) Homepage
    No way can I afford $3000, but can I take 9 of my buddies and each pay $300? Here's the itinerary guys:

    Lunar-G flights: Moonwalk competition.
    Mars-G flights: Martian wrestling. (Imagine the bodyslams!)
    Zero-G flights: Zero-G dodgeball, baby!

    I'm giggling already.

  • Odd diagram... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by smeenz ( 652345 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:32PM (#10248459) Homepage
    Has anyone actually read the article (yeah I know, this is slashdot)..

    It's just that they have a rather odd diagram [msn.com] on there showing when the freefall periods occur. It doesn't look right to me.

    It shows you get "zero g" (freefall) from the point where the aircraft starts to level off from a climb, until it starts to tip over... surely the freefall would occur from when it started to tip over until it started to pull up ?

    • Re:Odd diagram... (Score:5, Informative)

      by pclminion ( 145572 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @02:03PM (#10248799)
      The zero-G condition occurs when the aircraft is moving ballistically. Whether the plane is ascending or descending is irrelevant. All that matters is that it is moving in a parabolic trajectory consistent with the acceleration of gravity.

      The reason the occupants of the plane experience this as a zero-G condition is because they are in freefall. They are moving precisely as they would be moving if they were falling toward the earth without air resistance. You need a plane to accomplish this, because in reality you cannot neglect the air resistance.

      You can experience the same condition briefly, simply by jumping in the air. During the time you are in the air, you are in a weighless condition.

  • As a glider pilot.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Make ( 95577 ) <max,kellermann&gmail,com> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:32PM (#10248462) Homepage
    in a glider, you can fly in zero-gravity for about 5 or 10 seconds. If you like the idea, go to the nearest airfield and ask them, it's fun. Price should be around 30 dollars for a flight for non-members. But you can't run around at zero gravity, because you'll be wearing a 4 or 5-point seat belt. (pssst... glider acrobatics are even more fun, but that varies between -2g and +5g)

  • They were... (Score:4, Informative)

    by morzel ( 62033 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @01:41PM (#10248546)
    The appropriately dubbed 'The Uranus Experiment' [imdb.com] was filmed on location (i.e.: riding the vomit comet).

  • Pfft cheaper way than that! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Orclover ( 228413 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @02:23PM (#10249000)
    If I want to experience a few seconds of 0 gravity ill just fly southwestern airlines again.

    "pardon me son, did we land or were we shot down?"

  • Wrong Zero G corporation (Score:3, Funny)

    by Call Me Black Cloud ( 616282 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @02:27PM (#10249046)
    When I first read the story, up until I went to the company's web site, I thought the company selling the rides was Zero G Software [zerog.com]. They make InstallAnywhere, a product I've used extensively. I thought it was a cool tie-in and a great way to get the company noticed.

    Oh well, so much for the free ride for using their product to bundle our product...

  • Cleanup is extra (Score:3, Funny)

    by spitzak ( 4019 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @02:40PM (#10249197) Homepage
    Any unexpected cleanup of the plane interior after the flight may cost you extra.

  • Yikes. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by M. Silver ( 141590 ) <silver AT phoenyx DOT net> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @03:19PM (#10249576) Homepage Journal
    I worked for a charter airline, and we were approached by someone wanting to do something like this... probably 1997ish. They wanted to take some of our cargo planes, slap some FedEx PeoplePaks in them, and have them fly these sorts of flights during the day (when cargo planes are normally idle).

    The scary thing is that most cargo planes are cargo planes because they're too freakin' OLD for sane passengers to fly in.

    Now, okay, I'm no aeronautical engineer, but I can't imagine taking those creaky old (many older than I am; see sig) birds and doing *anything* weird with them. The whole time I was in freefall, I'd be thinking, "okay, is this going to stop, or did the wings fall off?"

    Okay, so the things would be all but unloaded, compared to hauling cargo, but still... seems like the stresses would be *different*. (Their FAQ doesn't exactly answer this straightforwardly, either.)

    Hmm. Nowhere on their website am I finding the tail number for their bird. Could be one of our 727-200's, but the airline I worked for hasn't updated its website since, well, about the time I left in 1998. Oh, wait. Nope, looks like it's Amerijet N994AJ.

    Heh. The reason the Zero-G website only shows the left side of the plane is because the right side is a Diet Rite ad.

  • Already available in Sweden... (Score:3, Informative)

    by apanap ( 804545 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @05:23PM (#10250651) Journal
    The Zero group [zero-group.com] has been offering 0-g flights [www.xero.se] in Kiruna, Sweden, using a special built russian air-plane since last year, and made their first "space-tourist"-flights this year in April (at least they were supposed to [swetourism.se] but I couldn't find a source actually confirming it with my 5 minutes of googling...). One of the people from there made a presentation at my university in December and said they charged ~$/4000 for it. They are also supposed to used special equipment and lighting inside the cabin to make the flight even more interesting than just having low gravity.

  • Been there, done that...for free (Score:3, Interesting)

    by carambola5 ( 456983 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @06:14PM (#10251071) Homepage
    Well, not exactly for free. I put a crapload of effort into it.

    I got to fly in the the Weightless Wonder (aka V**** C****) as part of a collegiate student program [nasa.gov] this past April. All told, we flew 30 micro-g parabolas, 1 lunar parabola, and 1 martian parabola. Let me say this: roller coasters, jumping cars over hills, even piloting gliders do not come close to comparing. Even when piloting an aircraft, you don't have the ability to get up and move around...there's that darn steering part to take care of.

    For $3000, if the track record and maintenence records are clean, I would definitely do it again (granted I plan ahead for this as simply an expensive vacation). Especially since I won't have to be preoccupied with any experiments.

    Might I suggest: anyone who is in a science-based major in college should try to come up with an experiment that would yield "intriguing" results when flown in microgravity. Remember, each trial must last a maximum of 25 seconds. And the more hands-off (and more automated), the better...that just means more fun for you.

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