Short-term weightlessness or reduced gravitational force simulator

摘要

The simulator has an instrument capsule (4) guided vertically by at least one rail (12) and rope or belt (7) driven by at least one motor (3) for approximately the same length of time taken by a fictitious object to be thrown upwards and fall back, with a residual acceleration which can be selected to lie within a range less than 1 g and greater than 0 g. A trailing cable (5) provides for power supply and signal transmission, the cable being held tight by at least one weight (6).The useful load of the capsule can be modified to suit particular uses and provision can be made to melt, solidify or weld together diverse materials in different media e.g. vacuum, gas or liquid.