Laure Dautriche / Photo credits: HAUSER Patrice / hemis.fr / hemis.fr / Hemis via AFP 7:24 a.m., April 8, 2024

Europe 1 was able to board an Airbus zero-G plane, one of the few devices in the world capable of offering moments of weightlessness. Around thirty scientists are testing their experiments thanks to a flight mission funded by CNES, the French space agency. Report from Mérignac near Bordeaux.

Doing science in weightlessness! This is possible thanks to the Airbus zero-G aircraft, one of the few aircraft in the world capable of offering this. On board this plane, around thirty biologists and physicists test their experiments. This flight mission is possible because it is financed by CNES, the French space agency, in Mérignac, near Bordeaux. 

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After 30 minutes of flight, here is the first phase of weightlessness. Bodies rise, float like feathers. At an altitude of 8,000 meters, the three pilots place the plane on a trajectory which artificially creates a situation of weightlessness. A crucial step, according to Sébastien Rouquette of CNES: "We have the impression that everything is slowing down, we are zen", he still marvels. 

A cure for motion sickness?

“It’s a way to observe phenomena that we cannot see on Earth,” continues Sébastien Rouquette. Participants no longer feel their weight. With electrodes placed on guinea pigs, a CNRS team is working on solutions to travel sickness, which is still poorly understood but which affects several million French people. “We are clearly in an unknown situation and we are going to see how our brain adapts to this unknown situation,” explains researcher Etienne Guillaud.

Right next door, some are training to do a cardiac massage in weightlessness, which astronauts could reproduce in space in the event of a problem. “With each support, we are propelled to the side”, indicates one of the scientists, who recognizes that in this exercise, stabilization, “is the hardest”. He adds: “It’s very physical, it gets tiring quite quickly!” After two hours of flight, the Airbus zero-G is back on Earth, with hundreds of data for scientists to analyze over several weeks.