Lunar bounce - video 3
Access the video

The second stage involves a parabolic flight, a special flight manoeuvre that simulates lunar and Mars-like gravity, allowing the team to study the effects of hypogravity on human balance.

“Compared to the jumping exercises in Milan, the "Hypo-G” flight affects all our body parts equally, as it would on the Moon. We will perform standardised balance tests to study the differences in the physiological systems that help us maintain balance,” explains Tobias Weber, science operations engineer and co-supervisor.

Should the study reveal that balance is impaired through reduced gravity levels, the findings will help to define countermeasures aiming at preventing falls and balance problems on lunar, and later martian, terrains.