The 6th Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign took place at the Air Base Dübendorf from 3 to 14 October 2022. It is the first time a campaign is featuring a Cessna Citation II research aircraft, operated by the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR). The airplane carried four research projects into weightlessness. The 6th Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign included tests for the “Akademische Raumfahrt Initiative Schweiz (ARIS)” to develop a nanosatellite, an experiment involving autonomous drones for future Mars missions, an experiment on human tissue production in weightlessness, and a basic research experiment to study the “genomic code” of gravity.
Unlike in previous campaigns, the latest campaign used a Cessna Citation II research aircraft. The small jet, which can carry up to eight investigators and their equipment and is operated by the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR), will complement the larger Airbus A310 ZERO-G. Through the NLR and its research aircraft, we offer highly flexible, cost-effective and quick access to microgravity. It’s the first time that the researchers can determine the parabolas and flight profile themselves and makes weightlessness highly accessible, almost like using regular equipment in a lab. The high flexibility of the NLR also significantly reduces the usual lead times.
