![]() ![]() Six support legs attach the primary mirror to a ring at the top of the telescope. A built-in brushless DC motor turns the air bearing spindle and can rotate a load up to 10 tons at approximately 10 revolutions per minute. As a zero-friction solution, an air bearing eliminates these problems, leading to a perfectly smooth, vibration-free rotation. Normal bearings that use oil lubricants are less effective because they produce vibrations and unstable rotations that degrade image quality. An air bearing is a special type of bearing that uses a thin film of pressurized air to act as the lubricant around the shaft that turns the mirror. The truss, in turn, is supported by a stainless-steel air bearing designed just for the Large Zenith Telescope. Supporting the dish is a steel truss and 19 adjustable pads. This limits the view of an LMT, which can only look straight up. Not only that, the dish holding the mercury can only be tilted so far before the liquid spills out. Mercury is extremely toxic, so working with it poses some long-term health risks. In the next section, we'll find out how passengers prepare for zero gravity - and motion sickness. The typical ZERO-G flight includes 15 of these parabolic arcs, while NASA flights may include up to 100. As the plane pulls out of the dive and begins to climb again, passengers again experience the force of 1.8 times that of gravity. The pilot pulls the plane out of the dive so that the dip between one arc and the next is at about 24,000 feet altitude. Because the plane shields the passengers from the rush of air, they can experience a free fall without the interference of air resistance. The sense of weightlessness lasts for about 30 seconds. ![]() At this point, passengers experience microgravity - it feels as if you are weightless because only negligible gravitational forces are present. ![]() Photo courtesy of Zero Gravity CorporationĪs the plane goes over the top of the arc, the centrifugal force exerted on the plane and everything in it cancels out the gravitational force pulling downwards. ![]()
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