What are the currently available microgravity platforms?

 

The major characteristics of the space environment are: microgravity and radiation. But someone may ask; can microgravity be experienced on the Earth? The answer is yes! This is because there are so many platforms or facilities that can supply microgravity on the Earth; these are known as terrestrial microgravity platforms. There are four major classifications of microgravity platforms or facilities (Figure 1):

-orbiting microgravity facilities (this supplies real or true microgravity); 

-non-orbiting microgravity facilities (this supplies real or true microgravity);  

-ground microgravity analogs; and 

-ground microgravity simulators.

     Figure 1: Microgravity Platforms 

The choice of the platform to use depends on so many factors. The focus of the specific experiment is the key to selecting the right platform. Some factors that may determine the choice of a particular platform can include: accessibility (most platforms are scarce and expensive); type of the experimental sample [size or volume, plant, animal, cells, microorganisms, solid, materials, chemical (hazardous or not) etc.]; the duration of microgravity supplied by the platform (e.g. seconds, minutes, hours, days, months); microgravity quality in g (10^-2, 10^-3, 10^-4, 10^-5, or 10^-6); and accessible altitude (for orbiting and non-orbiting platforms).

 

It has been observed that most tests in physics and microbiology require short time scales only while macrobiological tests would need long time scales. Also, physics experiments need more true (real) microgravity while biological experiments in many cases might be done in simulated or analog microgravity.

References and Further Reading

Ferranti, F., Del Bianco, M., Pacelli, C., 2021. Advantages and limitations of current microgravity platforms for space biology research. Appl. Sci. 11 (1), 68. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11010068.

 

Funmilola A. Oluwafemi and Adhithiyan Neduncheran (2022). Analog and Simulated Microgravity Platforms for Life Sciences Research: Their Individual Capacities, Benefits and Limitations. Advances in Space Research. 69, 2921-2929. ISSN 0273-1177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2022.01.007. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0273117722000199#.