In fact, I was so disoriented that it took me a minute to adjust my eyes to try and see straight as I stood up and my arms flew instantly above my head. It was so amazingly, incredibly bizarre I might even liken it to a psychedelic experience. So, when it was taken away and I got my first taste of lunar gravity, my brain didn't know what to make of it. What I realized pretty much immediately is that, as a human, my brain has been hard-wired to function with Earth's gravity, and I've gotten pretty used to Earth's gravity in my years on this planet. But instead, it was a sensation entirely its own. From watching Zero-G flyers float on the plane to seeing videos of countless astronauts floating in space, it seemed reasonable to assume that what looked like floating might, well, feel a bit like floating. What I expected to feel was the sensation of floating. But before I knew it, we were flying over the crest, and I felt the ground give way.
The increased gravity wasn't uncomfortable in fact, it felt kind of comforting being pushed against the bottom of the plane - like a gravitational weighted blanket. The walls, floor and ceiling all were heavily padded for safe floating, and we all went to find our own space on the floor to lie down as we would soon feel the "heavy" 1.8 g's before lifting up on the first parabola - a lunar parabola simulating gravity on the moon's surface.įun in zero-g: Weightless photos from Earth and space I was a bit nervous that the flight might make me nauseated (and we all had "barf bags" secured in our flight suit pockets just in case), but since most people who take this flight don't get sick, I wasn't too worried.Īfter a short flight into the slice of sky where we would begin the parabolas, we all left our seats and walked forward into the main part of the cabin while wearing masks (Zero-G has changed its operations to include a number of COVID-19 safety precautions). (We all went in helicopters, which only added to the excitement and insanity of it all.)īoarding the plane, my heart was pounding out of my chest with anticipation, beyond eager to jump head-first into this bucket-list item. Now, I have seen countless videos of people floating weightlessly aboardG-Force One and thought that I had at least a pretty good rough idea of what was to come as I boarded the helicopter to the airport. Even while writing this, I keep finding my head spinning and my mind drifting off, back to the G-Force One cabin. It's the kind of feeling you can't anticipate, but once you've had the experience, the feeling is impossible to shake.
Getting to the point: it feels nothing like I could have ever possibly imagined. (Earth's "normal" gravitational pull at the planet's surface is 1 g.) Now, depending on which of the 15 parabolas the plane is currently flying on, you either feel simulated zero gravity and float weightlessly or you feel simulated lunar gravity or Martian gravity. (Image credit: Zero-G)Īdditionally, as you round out the bottom of the parabolas, you feel increased gravity - about 1.8 g's, or gravitational forces. 's Chelsea Gohd floats in lunar gravity in this photo from a Zero-G flight that simulates lunar, Martian and zero gravity.
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