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People A Day in a Life                                                       07:00

                                                                  I wake up in a hotel room in Miami after a night of almost no sleep:
                                                                  I spent the night going over the last two days, which we spent
                                                                  assembling and calibrating the equipment for the experiment. The
                                                                  system isn’t large, but it is complex: it includes optical systems, a
                                                                  computer and a feed system of gallium, a liquid metal that reflects
                                                                  light in our mirror. Since the gallium oxidizes easily, we pump
                                                                  the system into a deep vacuum and fill it with ultra-high purity
                                                                  nitrogen. All this must be capable of withstanding 9G.

                        8:00

                    I eat a light breakfast and take anti-nausea
                    medication. On a parabolic flight, the plane
                    performs 30 “arcs” – paths in which it soars
                    to an altitude of 12,000 meters and then
                    dives to 9,000 meters, creating 20 seconds of
                    microgravity. It’s like a rollercoaster ride: some
                    are unaffected; others vomit; and nausea makes
                    others a “total loss,” and they must be tied to
                    a chair and looked after. On previous flights, I
                    threw up once or twice but then recovered.

                                         9:00

                                  I arrive at the hangar at the airport and make
                                  final arrangements for the equipment. I go
                                  to the bathroom, because there are none on
                                  the plane; we were even offered disposable
                                  diapers (I declined). We get a plane ticket, as if
                                  this were a regular flight, and receive a safety
                                  briefing. Then I put on a special flight suit with
                                  many pockets that are enough for everything
                                  we need, including vomit bags.

                                          11:00

                                    We board the plane. Almost the entire plane is empty to make room for cargo, and it
                                    is padded with a spongy material. Only the back of the plane contains 30 seats with
                                    no windows. We sit down and buckle our belts, and the plane takes off and flies to
                                    the special aerial space where it is permitted to perform parabolic flights.

                                                                                                           11:30

                                                                                            The parabolas begin. During takeoff we reach 2G. My head
                                                                                            is very heavy, and I try not to move it so I don’t damage my
                                                                                            neck. Then comes the dive, which simulates microgravity:
                                                                                            The two first parabolas simulate the gravity of the moon;
                                                                                            the following three simulate the gravity on Mars; and the
                                                                                            next 25 simulate a complete lack of gravity.

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