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The Swiss Parabolic Flights
Flown with the Airbus A310 ZERO-G, the Swiss Parabolic Flights are a unique platform for scientific research and industrial experiments in zero gravity, starting from Dübendorf Airfield.
Since 2015, four parabolic flight campaigns with more than 30 research projects on board have already been successfully carried out, and more flights are planned.
The utilization concept of the Swiss Parabolic Flights - shared use by universities, companies, and private individuals - is unique in Europe to date and offers a significant competitive advantage for Switzerland: The parabolic flights provide science and industry with cost-effective access to research and R&D projects in microgravity.
The flights are organized by the UZH space Hub together with the Swiss SkyLab Foundation, a non-commercial and non-profit scientific foundation.
Parabolic Flights - important research and test platform for science, industry and society
Parabolic flights are the only manned research platform in weightlessness, through which scientists can conduct their experiments by themselves. After thousands of experiments in the last decades, parabolic flights are the backbone of microgravity and spaceflight research, and technology development worldwide. For instance, in the weightlessness of a parabolic flight, equipment can be tested that should later on be used in Satellites or on Space Stations.
While big agencies such as the European Space Agency (ESA) are conducting “large scale” flight campaigns, The Swiss Parabolic Flights are filling a gap at the level of “small scale“ parabolic flights with low costs, simple access and rapid integrations times and in the scientific and technical environment of the facilities at Dübendorf airport and the University labs nearby. Scientists from Switzerland are using the parabolic flight platform in Dübendorf for initial, first and preliminary experiments, often before they apply for large scale projects at ESA, Horizon 2020 or the SNF. The Swiss Parabolic Flights shall contribute to the advancement of Swiss capabilities and, in particular, they shall allow for increasing key technological competences and building up knowledge in Switzerland with regard to microgravity experiments. See a full list of the conducted experiments below.
Thanks to the results and experience generated through their participation in Swiss Parabolic Flights in the past, scientists from Switzerland have applied successfully for competitive ESA funds. Furthermore, results from parabolic flight experiments have advanced product development and testing for various Swiss companies. Finally, parabolic flights are a unique educational tool to inspire students and young scientists for space sciences and technology.
Are you interested in using the Swiss Parabolic Flights for your research or tests? Contact us
How the Swiss Parabolic Flights are funded
The Swiss SkyLab foundation – as a non-commercial and non-profit scientific foundation according to federal law and working in the frame of the innovation cluster space and aviation of the University of Zurich (UZH Space Hub) – has introduced a unique funding model for the microgravity research flights: the airplane including staff is chartered by the foundation, and the costs are not covered by major space agencies, but shared by industry, academia and private participants. This has succeeded in significantly reducing the costs for academia.
The flight maneuver with the Airbus A310 ZERO-G
During a parabolic flight maneuver, an aircraft is weightless by flying on a “Keplerian trajectory”, which is described as an unpropelled body in an ideally frictionless space subjected to a centrally symmetric gravitational field. During this free-fall trajectory, the resultant of all forces acting on the aircraft other than gravity is nulled. In relation to sustainability, the flights are CO2-compensated.
Watch here a movie about the 4th Swiss Parabolic Flight in 2020
Watch more videos about the 4th Swiss Parabolic Flight 2020
List of experiments on the Swiss Parabolic Flight Program
Download List as PDF (PDF, 142 KB)
1st Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign, September 2015
| Cavitation bubbles in variable gravity | Dr. Mohamed Farhad and Dr. Outi Supponen, EPFL |
| The cellular response to hypoxia during microgravity (HYPOXIA) | Prof. Dr. Johannes Vogel and Prof. Dr. Max Gassmann, University of Zurich |
| Primary macrophages in microgravity | Dr. Cora Thiel and Prof. Dr. Oliver Ullrich, University of Zurich |
| Primary endothelial cells in microgravity | University Putra Malaysia |
| Mechanical watches in altered gravity conditions | H. Moser & Cie |
2nd Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign, October 2016
| The impact of hyper- and microgravity on expression of hypoxia-inducible factors alpha (HIFα’s) and their oxygen-dependent sub-cellular distribution | Prof. Dr. Johannes Vogel and Prof. Dr. Max Gassmann, University of Zurich |
| Gravity as a cue for plankton migrations | Prof. Dr. Roman Stocker, ETH Zürich |
| Involvement of calcium in mechanosensitive processes of muscle cells | Prof. Dr. Marcel Egli, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) |
| Are calcium dependent Ion channels also sensitive to gravity? | Prof. Dr. Marcel Egli, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) |
| Change of spinal stiffness in upright and prone position during microgravity induced by parabolic flights: A pilot study | Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich |
| Mars Sedimentation Experiment Settling Tube Photometer Rack (MarsSedEx-STP Rack) | Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Kuhn, University of Basel |
| Virtual Reality in altered gravity | ICEBERG / Orbital Views |
| Experiment in the SPmgLab system (customer 1) | SpacePharma, Courgenay |
| Experiment in the SPmgLab system (customer 2) | SpacePharma, Courgenay |
| Experiment in the SPump system (customer 3) | SpacePharma, Courgenay |
3rd Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign, June 2018
| Microgravity turns soils anoxic |
Prof. Dr. Dani Or and Dr. Joaquin Jimenez-Martinez, EAWAG, ETH Zurich |
| The effect of changing gravity on spinal stiffness | Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich |
| Effects of microgravity on membrane potential in cartilage cells | Prof. Dr. Marcel Egli, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) |
| Oxygen-shortage and manned space flights | Prof. Dr. Johannes Vogel and Prof. Dr. Max Gassmann, University of Zurich |
| Structural and molecular dynamics of cellular adaptation to microgravity |
Prof. Dr. Oliver Ullrich, University of Zurich, Dr. Srujana Neelam, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
| Crystallization in microgravity | SpacePharma, Courgenay |
| Space Manufacturing Experiment | Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CSU), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) |
| An exploratory study for measure and genesis of We-Consciousness: Induction through weightlessness in parabolic flights | Dr. Stephanie Schoss, University of St. Gallen (HSG) |
4th Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign, June 2020
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TEMPus VoLA: The Timed Epstein Multi-Pressure-Vessel at Low Accelerations |
Prof. Dr. Lucio Mayer, University of Zurich Dr. Holly Capello, University of Bern Physics Institute |
| Computational Sedimentation Modeling Calibration Experiment (CompSedModCal) | Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Josef Kuhn, University of Basel |
| Effect of altered gravity on the nucleus | Dr. Srujana Neelam, NASA Kennedy Space Center Dr. Cora Thiel, University of Zurich |
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Mechanical Chest Compression in microgravity condition |
Dr. Alessandro Forti, Eurac Research, Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine Prof. Dr. Olaf Schedler, Helios Klinikum Bad Saarow |
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Integrative analyses of nuclear gravitational force transduction mechanisms and their role in gene expression homeostasis in immune and muscle cells |
Dr. Cora Thiel and Prof. Dr. Oliver Ullrich, University of Zurich |
| The impact of hyper- and microgravity on expression of hypoxia-inducible factors alpha (HIFα’s) and their oxygen-dependent sub-cellular distribution | Prof. Dr. Johannes Vogel and Prof. Dr. Max Gassmann, University of Zurich |
| Pharmacologically induced immune control in human macrophages to prevent severe courses of Covid-19 with transfer of results from Space Medicine | Dr. Cora Thiel and Prof. Dr. Oliver Ullrich, University of Zurich |
| Influence of different gravitational forces on the measurement of body functions using IMU based sensor systems | Prof. Dr. Jörg Goldhahn, Dominik Hollinger and student team, ETH Zurich |
6th Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign, October 2022
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Flying on Mars: How Gravity Alterations Affect Self-Motion Estimation in Human Drone Pilots |
Prof. Dr. Davide Scaramuzza and Dr. Christian Pfeiffer, University of Zurich, Dr.Leyla Khenissi, EPFL |
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The “genomic code” of gravity - Integrative analyses of chromatin organization and transcription |
Dr. Cora Thiel and Prof. Dr. Oliver Ullrich University of Zurich |
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Exploring organoids - Test of “ZeroG Wells” for organoid production |
Prof. Dr. Anne Beghin, National University of Singapore |
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Swiss Artificial Gravity Experiment (SAGE) - CubeSat Gravity Demonstrator Test; CubeSat Pump Demonstrator Test; CellBox Test |
Fiona Konnerth, Simon Tobler, Rabea Rogge, Academic Space Initiative Switzerland – ARIS, ETH Zurich |
