Amusement Park Physics With a NASA Twist - Space Flight Systems ...

NASA Connection—Free-Fall Rides
A free-fall ride, like the one pictured here, lets you fall for about
1.5 seconds. Once the car is lifted to the top and released, the
force of gravity pulls it toward the ground. You are inside falling
at the same rate as the car; the effects of gravity seem to
disappear. This is similar to what astronauts experience on the
space shuttle or ISS. The space vehicles are falling toward the
Earth just as you were falling towards the ground. The astronauts
inside are falling at the same rate as the vehicle. Thus,
the astronauts float. On rides, however, the riders experience
the weightless feeling for less than 2 seconds, while the
astronauts experience it for days or months.
Demon Drop—a free-fall ride.
Two facilities at NASA Glenn Research Center are very similar
to a free-fall ride. Scientists that study the effects of microgravity
on fluids, combustion, and materials use either the
2.2-second drop tower or the 5.2-second drop tower. An
experiment is prepared in a special configuration, suspended
above an airbag or pit of Styrofoam beads and then dropped.
The 2.2-second drop tower uses an airbag to stop the experiment,
which is traveling 22 meters/seconds (50 mph) before
impact. The 5.2-second drop tower experiments travel
50 meters/seconds (110 mph) near the bottom. A pit holding
small Styrofoam beads (similar to those inside of a beanbag
chair) decelerates the experiment. The 5.2-second drop tower
has little air resistance because all of the air is pumped out of
the chamber before the experiment is dropped.
The 2.2-second drop tower.
An experiment at the end of its fall
inside the 5.2-second drop tower.
International Space Station.
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Amusement Park Physics With a NASA Twist
EG–2003–03–010–GRC