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No, We Don't Have an Antigravity Room - But What We Have is Just as Cool!

  • 27th Oct 2023
  • Author: Elliott Langley - Marketing Administrator
  1. 2022 07 02 Staff438

    Here’s a question we get asked a lot (and I mean a lot): is there an antigravity or zero-G room at the National Space Centre? Oh, how we wish the answer to that question was “yes”! Can you imagine how our staff would react? None of our visitors would ever get to try it out! We’d have to get someone to scoop our staff members out of the air with a big pole… which actually sounds quite fun now that I think about it.

    For this Our Space, we’re going to get a tiny bit more “sciency” than we normally do (usually I leave that to the fine people on our Space NOW blog) and we’re going to take a deeper look at why there isn’t an antigravity room in our Centre, but why what we do have is just as cool… if not cooler!

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Is it even possible?

First things first, no it is not possible to truly experience ‘anti-gravity’ here on our Home Planet. The reality is that artificial weightlessness is still very much in the realm of science fiction. While scientists are making incredible advancements every day, there simply isn’t a switch you can flip that puts gravity into standby mode.

I asked our Space Expert Dhara, and she was very clear on this. “Gravity is an attractive force,” Dhara told me, “One object with mass is always attracted to another object with mass. Whilst the electric and magnetic force have a positive AND negative ‘charge’, unless you have something with negative mass, you can’t have anti-gravity”.

The closest thing to weightlessness that can be experienced on good old planet Earth is the lovingly titled “vomit comet”. Astronauts train for micro-gravity conditions by flying aboard a plane that flies in a wave pattern. When they get to the top of the wave (the crest), for a few seconds they don't experience the acceleration of the plane flying them upwards or the downward acceleration from gravity. For those few seconds when the plane is "riding the crest of the wave," the passengers feel weightless and get a brief taste of weightlessness. 

If you have ever seen our Planetarium show Astronaut then you may remember seeing this in action… minus the vomit, of course.

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Safety First

Creating a room where gravity doesn’t apply might sound fun, but it also poses serious safety challenges. Imagine floating around in a small, enclosed space with lots of hard surfaces and without any control. To be fair, it sounds fun on paper… but even now I can sense our Health and Safety Coordinator, Katrina, beginning to experience a bit of a twitch in her eye. It’s our number one priority that our visitors feel safe when they’re at the National Space Centre, and while we do want to push the boundaries of science, we also want you to finish your day without any scrapes or bruises!

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Debunking a Myth

I know what you’re thinking; If this is all true, then what about those photos of people floating about willy-nilly in what appears to be an anti-gravity room? There’s nothing we love more than a good photo opportunity, and our Centre’s absolutely full of them. One of our favourites is the Columbus Chair. Located in our Columbus Module exhibit, the Chair lets you sit suspended in the air and creates the illusion that you’re floating. Our staff are very good at helping visitors strike poses to really give the impression that they’re defying gravity— check out Mike showing off his moves here.

Some of these photos are so convincing, it’s easy to mistake them for genuine weightlessness – but we can assure you it’s all “smoke and mirrors”. If you want to have a go yourself then speak to our staff! We can’t always offer it when it’s really busy, as it does need supervising, but you can always contact us in advance to see if it’ll be available when you visit.

Thankfully, the Columbus Chair is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cool stuff in our galleries. Let’s take a look at some of the things you can do that will put antigravity out of your mind!

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    Tetrastar Spaceport

    Ever dreamed of going on a low Earth orbit cruise to Mars? Our brand-new immersive experience lets you do just that! Board the Tharsis spacecraft, join the loveable AI known as ADA and enjoy your journey to the stars. Tetrastar Spaceport launched in 2022 and is available to all visitors during school holidays and weekends.

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    Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium

    We’re so proud of being the home of the UK’s largest planetarium! Gaze at the stars, learn about constellations, and take a breathtaking journey through the cosmos, all from the comfort of your seat. Lots of people even say they feel like they’re moving when they’re watching one of our shows.

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    Live Science Demonstrations

    Our Space Communications team love to get sciency! Prepare to be amazed by our live science demonstrations! From fiery chemical reactions that will make your jaw drop to experiments showcasing the wonders of physics, our team of Presenters bring real science to life right before your eyes.

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    Interactive Exhibits

    Our interactive exhibits allow you to discover everything from the mysteries of the universe to the history of spaceflight for yourself! From designing and launching your own rocket, to landing on Venus, and even investigating rocky minerals, our galleries are full of hands-on and interactive activities that will help learners of all types to find out more about space.

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    Busking!

    When they're not giving Tours of the Night Sky in the Planetarium, our Space Communications team love to spend time in the galleries and show our visitors some of the amazing items and activities in our collection. From astronaut training to identifying real meteorites older than Planet Earth, busking is a great way to add interactive elements to your visit. Look out for the staff members wearing blue shirts and find out more here. 

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    Real Rockets

    Our two iconic rockets, Thor Able and Blue Streak, have been here as long as we have been open! There's something really special about getting up close to real rockets, whether it's standing beneath the boosters and looking up or going all the way to the top of the Rocket Tower and looking down to get a true sense of the scale of these incredible creations. 

So, while an antigravity room might be the stuff of dreams (for now), there’s still plenty of ways to temporarily leave Planet Earth while you're in our galleries! And if you do have a go on the Columbus Chair when you visit then please do share your photos with us!