First parabolic flight campaign from Longueuil
From to , the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the National Research Council Canada (NRC) carried out a Falcon 20 parabolic flight campaign at l'École nationale d'aérotechnique (ÉNA) in Longueuil, Quebec. Among the technologies tested were:
- a flywheel exercise device for the Artemis II mission
- the EZResus application, winner of the Deep Space Healthcare Challenge
- other technologies aiming to improve remote healthcare delivery
The following week, SEDS Canada held their annual Canadian Reduced Gravity Experiment Design Challenge (CAN-RGX) flight campaign at ÉNA.
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Parabolic flights offer a low-cost platform to conduct scientific experiments in a reduced gravity environment. On each flight, the aircraft performs a series of parabolic trajectories during which microgravity conditions are achieved for periods of 15 to 20 seconds. This allows enough time to run the experiment and collect the necessary data.
The current parabolic flight program accessible to Canadian experimenters is centred on the use of the National Research Council's Falcon 20 aircraft, which is configured to carry out these unique flights.