[gpws]

Until recently, NASA had to resort to huge underground pools and flying specially equipped airplanes down inverse parabolic paths to simulate zero gravity enviroment on 'earth' (or at least in the confines of the atmosphere). Water/pool simulation isn't really that realistic compared to inverse parabolic paths that airplanes dive into. However, thats expensive, and most of all it can only lasts at most 30 or so seconds each time, the duration dissappointly short.

But now I believe I may have discovered a way to simulate Zero Gravity on Earth INDEFINITELY. (as long as the eletric grid is not down...)

Take a look at my rough sketch below.

It's a fariswheel that has an additional full axis centrifuge attached to the payload. The trainee is located within the smaller centrifuge. (a centrifuge inside a centrifuge).




The beauty of this device is that its right here on earth, its more realistic than water, and as long as power is continuously added to the system, it can simulate zero gravity forever, perpetually and without end. (much longer than the 30 or so seconds in dive of an airplane)

[gpws]

Sorry I fought to explain how its supposed to work.
Actually its pretty self explanatory...

Start at position 1. The fariswheel is at its peak and its negative arch developes force of 1g upward. Gravity force is 1g DOWNward.
They cancel out= Zero g.

At position 2 you have gravity downward, force of 1g leftward,
but then we have the inner centrifuge rotate at such an angle/position so that its effective gravity vector cancels out and we are again left with zero g

At position 3 you have gravity 1g and the fariswheel itself 1g.
This is TWO g's downward. However the inner centrifuge rotates EXTRA hard to make up for it and we get 2 g's upward from it. That again cancels everything out.

Pos 4 is just like pos 2 except its flipped.

[Free]

I never cease to be amazed at the effort of discredtiting POers...

[gpws]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Free', 'I') never cease to be amazed at the effort of discredtiting POers...

[username]

Is that a stargate?

[Madpaddy]

Hmm,

Seems feasible to me. You need Devil to comment on this but he hasn't been here for a long time I think.

[Madpaddy]

What happens at intermediate positions between points 1,2,3&4. There should be zero g at every point, right or wrong?

[Tanada]

In order to maintain an active balance for the system you would have to have at least one equal and opposite mass on the wheel, otherwise vibration and stresses would rock the system back and forth destroying the free fall effect you are trying to acheive. The other mass would be expressing 2 g's at all times which is no big deal but would make your design something of a power hog to operate.

[Newsseeker]

As the men from Guiness would say, "Brilliant!" Next stop: cold fusion!

[gg3]

What I think the original poster was trying to say was, this is a device based on a Ferris wheel, for the purpose of simulating free-fall conditions without need of expensive airplane flights. And that such a device could produce a continous state of free-fall by manipulating the positions of objects in circular paths.

There's nothing weird about any of that. I haven't bothered to check the math or physics to see if it would work as claimed, but there is nothing anomalous going on here, just an attempt to use rotary motion around a horizontal axis that is in turn rotating about another horizontal axis.

However I do see a possible problem. The use of centrifugal force would require that the payload (the astronaut in training) remain at a specific fixed location in the capsule in order to avoid being flung outwardly and pressed up against the interior wall of the capsule particularly at the point where the capsule rounded the bottom of the curve and went from descending to ascending.

In contrast, the present system using an aircraft in free-fall enables astronauts to move around freely and perform simulated work tasks such as learning how to balance against torque when using an electric drill in zero-G.

In any case it would not be difficult to build a scale model for testing purposes, and use a couple of BBs or other small weights as test objects to see if they behave as if they are in free-fall during the entire cycle of the device. Ideally what you want after that is a large enough scale model that you can build some kind of weight measuring devices into the capsule, even something as simple as a digital scale with a weight taped down to it that would register zero in freefall.