WEIGHTLESSNESS

FOR ALL

Vladimir PLETSER Directorate of Human Space Flights and Operations European Space Agency ESA Vladimir Pletser European, Belgian, born in Brussels Civil Engineer in Mechanics, 1979 Master in Physical Sciences (Geophysics), 1980 Ph.D. in Physical Sciences (Astrophysics), 1990 Belgian Astronaut Candidate, 1991 Physicist – Engineer at ESTEC, ESA, 1985-... - Project Manager for Physical Sciences microgravity payloads on Spacelab, Spacehab, ISS, Russian Foton - Coordinator of ESA Parabolic Flights, 6747 parabolas 36h22m 0g (24.2 orbits) + 49m g Mars + 43 m g Moon more than 900 experiments Three simulation campaigns of Martian missions: Arctic, 2001; Utah Desert, 2002, 2009 (Crew Commander) Microgravity - Weightlessness

It’s about time to call the repair service !

SUBORBITAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION GOALS OF THE SRA • Promote, help and facilitate suborbital scientific research • Independently and complementarily to existing structures • Promotion and Outreach toward general public, youngsters and students FIRST PROJECT OF THE SRA • To organise a first scientific flight in 2016 on board the Lynx of XCOR Aerospace with science experiments and experiments proposed by secondary schools students. • The SRA selected 10 proposals out of 17 coming from six European countries.

THE LYNX SPACEPLANE OF XCOR AEROSPACE • Liquid propellant rocket engine • Take-off and landing as a normal plane from a spaceport in the Mojave Desert in California • A pilot and a passenger sitting in the cockpit • Flight tests from 2015 till 2016 at Mach 2 at 60-65 km • Experiments accommodated in the Lynx cockpit, behind the pilot seat • Two Canisters at the back for small experiments or cubesats SUBORBITAL FLIGHT LYNX - XCOR AEROSPACE SRA – SELECTED EXPERIMENTS • FLUID PHYSICS : Experimental study of sloshing in 0g condition • Profs. M.R. Vetrano, J.M. Buchlin (Von Karmann Inst., B) Study of sloshing of cryogenic ergols that woudl allow to restart engines in orbit

• PHYSIOLOGY: Ballistocardiography in 3 dimensions Dr P.F. Migeotte (Brussels Univ., B) Development of a measuring system (accelerometer) in 0g to map in 3D a beating heart, to allow tele-monitoring of cardiac patients • PHYSIOLOGY: Brains in Space 2.0. The effects of a suborbital flight on central nervous regulation assessed by cortical (EEG), hormonal and affective (CST) stress markers Prof. S. Schneider (Un. Koln), Prof. A Chouker (Un. Munchen, D) • PHYSIOLOGY : Neuroplasticity of brain caused by weightlessness Prof. F. Wuyts (Antwerpen Univ., B) Pre- and post-flight brain measurement by, allowing to identify brain areas active in space orientation processes and linked to proprioception • TECHNOLOGY: Test and study in suborbital flight conditions of a particle balance and its electronic control and command card Mr T. Martens (ISEN, Univ. Lille, F) • HISTORICAL: The Ishango Space Odyssey project Prof. D. Huylebrouck (KUL, B) • STUDENTS: 4 experiments : - Multispectral photography + 3D inertial movement (Sint Pieterscollege, Jette, B) - Observation of regular deformation of the interface between two non-miscible liquids submitted to vibrations in microgravity (Coll. Saint-Michel, Etterbeek, B) - MASS: Measuring Acceleration in Space Systems (Sint-Barbaracollege, Gent, B)