Drop capsule
A drop capsule is a cylindrical container that falls down the downpipe of a drop tower . During the free fall , experiments are carried out inside the capsule under weightless conditions that would otherwise only be possible in space .
functionality
Experiments using a drop capsule take place in the evacuated tube of a drop tower. A vacuum is artificially created in the tube , as air resistance would lead to undesirable and disruptive forces . When carrying out the experiment, the drop capsule is notched out at a great height and lands undamaged at the foot of the drop tube in a container several meters deep with styrofoam balls . The experiments take place during the weightlessness created by the fall, which depends on the height of the fall and lasts about five seconds at 100 meters; for example materials science , fluid mechanics , combustion research, astronomy and space technology.
Drop towers often have a catapult device that catapults the drop capsule upwards in the drop tube in order to extend the simulation of weightlessness. The best- known example of this is the Bremen drop tower with almost 10 seconds of weightlessness. Around 400 drop capsules are dropped there every year. The capsules used in Bremen have a diameter of 80 centimeters and a length of 1.6 or 2.4 meters. The total weight with payload can be up to 350 kilograms. The capsule reaches a top speed of around 167 km / h.