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Jaap Swanenburg from the UZH Space Hub network is doing measurements on the human spine of healthy test persons during parabolic flights on bord the AIRBUS A310 ZERO G airplane this week (27-30.11.2023).
Why measurements on parabolic flights?
Jaap Swanenburg' s research aims to deepen understanding of how altered loads of the spine relate to the risk of herniated (slipped) discs, which are a widespread cause of back pain.
With a team of 14 persons, Jaap is participating in the 83rd ESA parabolic flight campaign in Bordeaux, France. Among the team members are technicians, engineers, data scientists and test persons for the measurements.
During parabolic flight maneuvers, the aircraft rises steeply and subsequently dives, following the shape of a parabola. During this maneuver, a phase of enhanced gravity (1.8g) is followed by a phase of microgravity, rendering everything inside the aircraft weightlessness for about 20 seconds. During an ESA research flight, up to 30 parabolas are performed in one flight.
For Jaap’s experiment on the 83rd ESA parabolic flights, test persons will wear a “backpack” with instruments that measure spinal curvature and muscle activity (see picture from a previous experiment). This allows to analyze where exactly the shape of the spine changes during the microgravity (weightlessness)-phases and the hypergravity-phases of the flight, when the spinal load is increased respectively decreased.
Follow the campaign via our current thread on X and read more about Jaaps reseach here.
Svantje Tauber
