WA scientists are preparing to experience zero gravity for a landmark mission testing research that could one day support life on Mars.<\/p>\n
In a deal between the University of Western Australia and the French Space Agency CNES, a Perth-based team will become the first all-Australian scientific crew to take part in a large-scale parabolic flight this October.<\/p>\n
The researchers will board a specially modified Airbus A310, designed to simulate zero gravity.<\/p>\n
The aircraft creates weightlessness by flying in steep arcs, briefly entering freefall.<\/p>\n
Each manoeuvre gives those on board about 30 seconds of zero gravity, with the team set to complete more than 90 of these during the mission.<\/p>\n
For the scientists, the experience will closely mirror astronaut training.<\/p>\n
They will float in the same aircraft used by Australian astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg during her training with the European Space Agency.<\/p>\n
During the flight, the team will test an experiment led by Professor Hongqi Sun, focused on a process called chemical catalysis.<\/p>\n
The goal is to use sunlight to convert methane and carbon dioxide into syngas, which can be used to produce fuel and other essential materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy flying our experiment in weightlessness, we aim to understand how gravity affects this process,\u201d Professor Sun said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could enable future astronauts to produce fuel and materials from local resources on missions to places like Mars, and help optimise chemical manufacturing on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
UWA International Space Centre director Professor Danail Obreschkow said the mission marked a major step forward for Australia\u2019s space capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrategically, this mission will pave the way for sustained access to large, crewed microgravity flights for Australian researchers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brings enormous benefits to WA research, industry, and STEM inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mission will also include opportunities for students, with two university places available, giving young Australians the chance to take part in zero-gravity research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WA scientists are preparing to experience zero gravity for a landmark mission testing research that could one day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,44,128,285,105,45],"class_list":["post-648748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-science","tag-space","tag-technology","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}