Thanks to the financial support of CNES we participate to Zero-G Flights organized by Novespcace. The microgravity phase is obtained at the top of the parabolic trajectories of the Airbus Zero-G, as shown in the following picture :

Suppressing gravity is a very nice way to study specific phenomena where density differences play a role.

It is also the best way to evaluate potential applications that could be useful in the ISS or for future long space journeys toward Mars. In our case, we think that Acoustic Levitation is a very promising techniques to handle or sort cells in space. Acoustic levitation on Earth can be considered as Acoustic Gravity in Space.

Since 2020 we started a close collaboration with Jean-Michel Peyrin and decided to study how the gravity variations can modify the activity ot 2D or 3D cell neuronal networks. The experimental setup has been largely modified to allow monitoring of calcic activity using flurescence microscopy during parabolic flights.

Parabolic flights VP177 of Novespace – Mars 24

The 2024 team : Jean-Michel Peyrin, Maxime Ardré, Jean-Luc Aider, Xavier Benoit-Gonin, Pierre-Ewen Lecoq, Bérénice Dupont and Guillaume Viraye

Parabolic flights VP177 of Novespace – October 23

The 2023 team : Xavier Benoit-Gonin, Guillaume Viraye, Pierre-Ewen Lecoq, Bérénice Dupont, Jean-Michel Peyrin and Jean-Luc Aide

Parabolic flights VP145 of Novespace – October 2019

This was a very nice campaign, with two new flying guys in the team: Nathan and Xavier. Here is a picture of Gabriel and Nathan with one of the pilots of the Zero-G flight : Thomas Pesquet who came to have a look at the experiments and to enjoy zero-gravity.

During this campaign, we focused on behavior of nanorods self-propelled by the ARF once in the acoustic levitation plane. Because the nanorods are made of dense metals (Au, Ru, Pt, …), the levitation plane is different from the acoustic nodal plane and changes are expected in the self-acoustophoresis. Here is the link for some live explanations inside the Airbus : https://www.facebook.com/AirZeroG/videos/443665559834487/

Parabolic flights VP139 of Novespace – October 2018