Artemis 2 exercise device takes off in parabolic flight (photos, video)

An exercise device destined for the Moon just experienced microgravity for the first time.

Flywheel design designed for flight Artemis 2 astronaut mission around the moon, not until 2025, included six parabolic flights in Canada during the week of July 15. The scientists flew in a business jet known as the Falcon 20, taking off from Montreal, then dived and soared through the sky.

“We were trying to understand how to train the flywheel technique, as well as how to prescribe the exercises that the crew would be doing on Artemis 2,” said Natalie Hirsch, Canadian Space Agency(CSA) told Space.com:

Flywheels are popular in small spaces on Earth because they combine cardio with weight-lifting exercises like squats and deadlifts. But none of them have ever flown space before, that is, where NASACSA and other Canadian government departments hope to fill this gap.

Related: I flew weightless on a parabolic flight to see amazing science students

CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be a mission specialist aboard the Artemis 2 mission and the first non-American to fly beyond low-Earth orbit. (His crewmates are NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover. Koch and Glover will become the first woman and black person, respectively, to fly to the moon.)

NASA developed a flywheel for the Orion spacecraft, planning to use the device at least through Artemis 5. CSA agreed to make a commercial replica—identical in dimensions, gearing, and drag levels—to test exercises with it. But before it sailed, CSA partnered with a division of the Canadian Armed Forces to recruit 30 military and CSA participants for ground testing.

Pioneering Space Exercises in Parabolic Flight! – YouTube

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Participants completed 10 sessions on a commercial flywheel, including two familiarization sessions. Data were collected on items such as body composition, resistance, cadence, and required power and strength to assess feasibility of use.

While those results are being evaluated, a small team took to the air to use the flywheel for 20 seconds at a time. The parabolic campaign aimed to answer questions such as which exercise program would be most effective, whether a small space would be enough to perform the exercise, and whether results on Earth would mirror those in microgravity.

Related: How I Learned to ‘Moonwalk’ on a 30,000-Foot Plane Flight That Made Me Nauseated (Video)

a small silver box with a long protruding handle

The flywheel design was intended to be used on the Artemis 2 and early lunar missions. (Image source: NASA)

“We wanted to test the exercises that we had planned for Artemis 2, test them in microgravity, and get a better sense of what it feels like to do those exercises on a flywheel,” Hirsch said. The group also aimed to identify any other issues “that we would need to consider in microgravity,” Hirsch added.

The Falcon 20 aircraft is provided by Canada’s National Research Council, which is engaged in experimental spaceflight, including parabolic flights, autonomous helicopter flights, atmospheric research and even the world’s first flight powered by biofuel. While the Falcon 20 is powerful, space is tight: it’s so small that most normal-sized people have trouble standing upright in it.

“So we ended up mounting a steel plate perpendicular to the floor of the Falcon 20, and then we mounted the flywheel on that plate,” Hirsch said. The subjects lay on the floor to start and placed their feet in the flywheel straps. The goal was to lift their feet slightly into a position that resembled Earth. seriousnesswith enough space to ensure comfortable exercise as the body naturally floats during the phases of flight in microgravity.

Related: How will Artemis 2 astronauts train on the way to the Moon?

long business plane taking off from runway. grass and construction fence in front

The Falcon 20 parabolic-flight aircraft, operated by the National Research Council of Canada, will take off from Montreal Metropolitan Airport near Montreal, Quebec, in July 2024. (Photo source: Canadian Space Agency)

Hirsch said the campaign gave them confidence in the flywheel design. During each flight, after 18 parabolas, they found that rowing exercises (the circulatory part of the crew’s exercise) could be performed even when they were free from the usual guides available on commercial rowing machines.

While most of the exercises went according to plan, the squat may require some thought. The flywheel requires the exerciser to wear a harness, and the flywheel belt goes into a steel platform between the exerciser’s feet.

“One of the things we noticed is that I think because of that direction of pull, people tend to rotate forward when they squat,” Hirsch said. Orion spaceshipWith so little space available, the concern would be an accidental “structure strike” during the exercise. But NASA and CSA are looking into it, she stressed, already discussing lessons learned and potential ways to reposition future exercisers.

a person floating on a chair during a parabolic flight

Tristan Richmond, a Canadian Space Agency operations engineer, tests the EZResus app during a National Research Council parabolic flight aboard a Falcon 20 spacecraft. (Photo source: Canadian Space Agency)

Also aboard the parabola was a suite of devices from CSA’s Health Beyond initiative, which aims to make portable devices useful both in spaceflight and in remote communities. EarthThe tested portfolio includes the EZResus application, from the non-profit company Applications MD; EZResus won the Deep Space Healthcare Challenge organized by CSA in 2023 for his approach to resuscitation of people in the field, including the accurate dispensing of medications.

“We brought a wide range of devices,” Tristan Richmond, CSA operations engineer, told Space.com in a separate interview. The wearables and biomonitors selected from Health Beyond were considered high priority for future missions to the international space station and required good microgravity data to continue their development.

As for the app, the goal was to test it in difficult conditions: “The app is designed for emergency scenarios. It has to be intuitive and it has to remain intuitive in high-stress situations. And parabolic flights are really great for that. You get an adrenaline rush and you can feel nauseous, dizzy. We were able to follow the medical algorithms in the app quite easily. So that was a great test.”