Weightless net testing

Nets are being studied for capturing derelict satellites, to help stabilise space debris. The behaviour of nets in orbit was being checked on an aircraft flying parabolic arcs to create brief periods of weightlessness. The nets were shot out of a compressed air ejector at a scale-model satellite. Some 20 nets were fired at various speeds during 21 parabolas over two days. Packed inside paper cartons, the nets were weighted at each corner, helping them to entangle the model satellite. The parabolic flights by the National Research Council of Canada were contracted by Poland’s SKA Polska company, overseeing the project for ESA.