Is there a such thing as an Antigravity Chamber?

Question

and if not what does NASA do to simulate weightlessness in training?

Answer 1

Gravity is what's called a 'fictional force'. Which just means that there are ways to construct systems in which the effects of gravity pretty much disappear.

One such way is to use 'free fall'. If you and everything around you is falling without resistance, then all those things will have no relative movement and no stresses. This is why there's no apparent gravity in orbit - everything is falling toward the Earth, but it's just moving so fast in one direction that it misses. (Gravity is a little weaker there because of the distance, but only by about 10% - link 1)

This can be used by NASA too. Most commonly they send astronauts up in a jet and use carefully plotted courses that go mostly down. This provides a temporary sort of non-gravity, because the plane has to pull up before it hits the ground! Roller coasters can do the same, though usually very, very briefly, and you might also build an amusement-park-like ride that also dropped you quickly and gave you a brief moment of non-gravity. Such things are sometimes called 'antigravity machines', though not commonly.

Another way to simulate weightlessness a bit is to use buoyancy. Buoyancy creates an upward force, so if it is very carefully balanced it can essentially cancel out the downward force of gravity, and make it sort-of seem like gravity isn't there. NASA does this sometimes in huge pools of water using space-suit-like breathing apparatus. The illusion is far from perfect, however... the water provides plenty of resistance and your internal organs probably do as well.

Answer 2

It was a quick way to generate some completely genuine "zero gravity," same as on the Space Station. Actually, this is just a way to create free fall weightlessness. "Zero-G" means zero acceleration or no G-force, not "zero gravity."


The space shuttle orbits at about 300 miles above the earth. Did you know that, at 300 miles altitude, the gravity is only about 15% less than gravity at the surface? Gravity inside the space shuttle is 85% normal. It only appears to be zero. This happens because the space shuttle is falling, and the astronauts are falling as well. Whenever any container is falling free, the contents of the container will appear to be weightless. Of course the shuttle and its contents are also moving sideways as they fall, so they never hit the earth.


Our "zero gravity" generator is simply a TV camera in a well-lit box. By shifting our point of view to the inside of a movable box, we can create genuine "weightlessness", exactly the same as within any orbiting space craft.

Answer 3

no there isnt an anti gravity chamber,but what they use to simulate 0 gravity(as seen on apollo 13 movie) is a specially modified jet that dives at an incredible angle,simulating 0 gravity,by the negative G's it produces in the free fall

Answer 4

Yes there are antigravity chambers. Weighlessness can occur on a rollar-coaster where the direction of motion is suddenly changed from up to down.

Answer 5

The vomit comet creates a zero-g environment. If your entire reference frame (a plane) is freefalling, you don't feel gravity.

They also use water tanks, which are not quite like zero g but close enough for some training.

Answer 6

No, according to this article, NASA does not have an anti gravity chamber.

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/everydaylife/defy_gravity.html

This comes straight from NASA, so I would trust it. Other techniques are used to achieve anti-gravity,

Answer 7

NO!! Underwater Training exercises

Answer 8

yeah there is... thats how they practice. duh.. lol im jp theres no such thing as one of those