Hi , I'm Master sergeant flemming of
the one 61st air refueling wing ,
Arizona , Air National Guard . The
unmet need that I would like to address
for the 2022 Air Force spark tank is
the lack of platforms for reduced
gravity research . Why do we need more
reduced gravity research platforms ?
Because Nasa's Artemus mission is
headed for the moon and they're
planning a manned mission to MArs .
There are even a few commercial
endeavors to mine an asteroid due to
the explosive growth of space missing .
The D . O . D . Created a new branch
than the Air Force established a course
to develop further research into future
capabilities in this expanding
environment . Current platforms for
reduced gravity research include a drop
tower at NASA's Glenn Research Center
though it is unmanned in short a mere
2.2 seconds , it's cost
effective and repeatable .
Another research platform is the
sounding rocket allowing for a longer
test time . These are
also unmanned and expensive ,
reduced gravity research also has
opportunities and commercial suborbital
and low earth orbit modules . These
flights lasting several minutes can be
manned or unmanned and expensive ,
although each company does offer some
sponsorship for research missions .
Commercial spacecrafts , greatest
drawback is the limit availability of
these flights . Another alternative for
reduced gravity research is the
parabolic flight of an aircraft
aircraft flying Parabolas can provide
as much as 25 seconds of reduced
gravity testing time and repeat them
multiple times per flight . The flights
are man's cost effective and repeatable .
However , they are currently limited to
a single commercial provider NASA
previously conducted these flights with
a modified KC135 aircraft from
1973 until 2004 when the program
was ended due to maintenance costs ,
fortunately , the Air Force still flies
the KC 1 35 . Lots of them at
lots of different locations . My
innovation intends to make use of the
large volume of aircraft over multiple
locations While NASA flew a single
modified aircraft . My idea is to
create a component system which could
be installed in any case , the 135
aircraft Nasa referred to theirs as the
vomit comet . I call my innovation
ralph
the reduced gravity aircraft laboratory
framework . My plan includes developing
procedures for removing or securing
regularly installed items inconsistent
with near weightless flight and
installing modular framework of impact
resistant , electro magnetically safe
surfaces along with power and light ,
it would break down into multiple
pieces to fit in a palette or two for
transportation via aircraft or truck ,
ideally the project is scalable so
multiple kits could be produced and
distributed . If the Department of the
Air Force is going to lead the way and
reduce gravity testing for the future
of space , we're going to need to go
ralph