Space has always intrigued mankind and spaceflights have already taken us into outer space and even on to the Moon. But the exploration of outer space does not go without risks; the astronauts are exposed to harmful cosmic radiation and when gravitational loading on the human body is removed, adaptations in human physiology are induced. Some of these processes adapt slowly, e.g. the musculoskeletal system, while other processes react faster to the changing environment, like the cardiovascular system. Only when the gravitational influence is understood, man can protect himself against it. Because research in outer space is difficult and expensive, parabolic flight campaigns !"#$ are organi%ed. States of reduced and increased gravity are mimicked in an aircraft, by flying it in a specific path. &he study of heart rate and blood pressure measurements done during such a !"#, make it possible to investigate short'term gravitational effects on cardiovascular control mechanisms. (uring parabolic flights it was already shown that a higher vagal modulation of the autonomic nervous system was present in microgravity ) * g$ compared to normo' + g$ or hypergravity +. - +. g$ in standing sub/ects, and that no differences were shown in supine sub/ects between different 0 phases. 1ecently, partial gravity !"#2s are set up to simulate the gravity conditions on Moon *.+ g$ and Mars *.3 g$. 1ecording of cardiovascular parameters during thes e inter media te gravi ty level s will allow us to inve stig ate more precisely whethe r there exists a funct ional relationship between cardiac control mechanisms and the gravity level, hereby expanding our knowledge about the gravitational influence on our autonomic nervous system.
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7/23/2019 Microgravity experiment
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/microgravity-experiment 1/2
Space has always intrigued mankind and spaceflights have already taken us into outer space and even on to the
Moon. But the exploration of outer space does not go without risks; the astronauts are exposed to harmful cosmic
radiation and when gravitational loading on the human body is removed, adaptations in human physiology are
induced. Some of these processes adapt slowly, e.g. the musculoskeletal system, while other processes react faster
to the changing environment, like the cardiovascular system. Only when the gravitational influence is understood,
man can protect himself against it.
Because research in outer space is difficult and expensive, parabolic flight campaigns !"#$ are organi%ed. States of
reduced and increased gravity are mimicked in an aircraft, by flying it in a specific path. &he study of heart rate and
blood pressure measurements done during such a !"#, make it possible to investigate short'term gravitational
effects on cardiovascular control mechanisms.
(uring parabolic flights it was already shown that a higher vagal modulation of the autonomic nervous system was
present in microgravity ) * g$ compared to normo' + g$ or hypergravity +. - +. g$ in standing sub/ects, and that
no differences were shown in supine sub/ects between different 0 phases. 1ecently, partial gravity !"#2s are set up
to simulate the gravity conditions on Moon *.+ g$ and Mars *.3 g$. 1ecording of cardiovascular parameters during
these intermediate gravity levels will allow us to investigate more precisely whether there exists a functional
relationship between cardiac control mechanisms and the gravity level, hereby expanding our knowledge about the
gravitational influence on our autonomic nervous system.
7/23/2019 Microgravity experiment
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/microgravity-experiment 2/2
(a) &he parabolic manoeuvre consists of a 4* s pull'up hypergravity +.g $ phase, the 44 s ballistic
tra/ectory *g $ and a 4* s pull'out +.g phase. &his manoeuvre is alternated with standard gravity
+g $ phases of about 4 min and carried out 3+ times by the pilots during the flight.(b) !icture of the experiment in the plane during a *'g phase.(c) 5oom in the science chamber where the atoms are laser cooled and then interrogated by the
1aman laser beams red$ that are collinear to the 6 axis and retroreflected by a mirror blue$.(d) Space'time diagram of the 78 consisting of three successive light pulses that split, reflect and
recombine the two matter waves represented by the dashed and the solid lines. &he blue and red
arrows represent the two 1aman laser beams.
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