http://www.microgravity.com/tutorial.

html
1. MEANS OF OBTAINING MICROGRAVITY

Drop tower or drop shaft ( http://www.microgravity.com/tutorialobtaining.html )

A drop tower or drop shaft is a long, vertical conduit within which

experiment packages are being dropped and subjected to microgravity
during free fall. Drop towers (above ground) and drop shafts (below ground)
provide microgravity qualities of 10-4 g for a relatively short duration
between 2.2 to 10 seconds. (See figures below) The key facalities are as
follows.
Drop towers and shafts are used for experiments that only need a short
duration of microgravity, or for an initial validation for experiments that will
be carried out in longer duration of microgravity.

Reduced Gravity Aircraft ( http://www.microgravity.com/tutorialobtaining-page2.html )

Aircraft can fly in parabolic arcs to achieve longer period of microgravity of

20 to 25 seconds with g-level of +/- 0.02 g.

Orbital. (Dont apply to our project)

Suborbital Rocket Flights (Sounding Rockets). (Dont apply to our
project)

2. ADVANTAGES OF SOUNDING ROCKETS

I take down these advantages to know if any of them can be also obtained
by our zero-g drone project.

Simplicity
Cost. Main advantage.

Development Speed. Related to the drone development

Recoverability. I think this can be a big advantage of using a drone.
Education

3. SPECIFIC AREAS OF MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH

Research in fluid physics under microgravity:

Design more stable and performing power plants.

Deeper knowledge of the determination of the structure and
properties of a solid metal.
Safe buildings in earthquake-prone areas thanks to a better
understanding of the fluid-like behavior of soils under stress.
Improve fire safety and fuel efficiency with the knowledge of
fluid flow in microgravity.

Combustion science

A better understanding of combustion helps find solution for the pollution,

global warming, unwanted fires and incineration of hazardous waste.

Basic questions in life sciences

Biotechnology: health, agriculture, and environmental
protection.

Medical research

Develop new and innovative materials, pharmaceuticals and other products

4. EXAMPLES OF COMMERCIAL MARKETS.

 Terrafoam
Terra Foam is a silica based nanocrystalline foam, similar to an aerogel
material. However, unlike aerogels, Terra Foam can be composited with
numerous organic and inorganic compounds to create an endless variety of
materials of different characteristics.

Aerogel

Aerogel is a nearly transparent dry gel principally made of silica. It is the

lightest solid known on Earth, weighing as little as 3 times that of air, and
has the equivalent thermal insulating quality equal to 10-20 glass
windowpanes. A single inch thickness of this silica-based material has the
internal surface area of a basketball court and can protect a human hand
from the heat of a blowtorch. Aerogel can be used in more than 800
different product applications ranging from satellites to surfboards.
Aerogel produced in microgravity is more transparent than aerogel produced
on Earth, which have a slight blue haze, arising from the presence of large
pores formed during the gellation.

ZBLan

ZBLan is a new, space age substance with the potential to revolutionize

fiber optics communications. ZBLan manufactured in a microgravity
environment has properties that far exceed current state-of-the-art optical
fiber materials or even ZBLan made on Earth. A ZBLan fiber optic cable
manufactured in space has the potential to carry 100 times the amount of
data conveyed by conventional silica-based fibers .

Protein Crystal Growth

In a microgravity environment protein crystals can be grown larger and with

a purity that is impossible to obtain on Earth. By analyzing the space-grown
crystals it is possible to determine the structure and function of the
thousands of proteins used in the human body and in valuable plants and
animals. The determination of protein structure represents a huge
opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs to fight
diseases.

SPACE PHARMA
http://www.space4p.com/
They help in all phases of performing experiments in microgravity. Including
experiment planning, preparation, execution in microgravity and result

analysis. This company uses different platforms in order to perform their

costumers experiments:

Ground simulators
Parabolic flights
NanoSatellites

They can be a potential user of our zero-g drone.

MICROGRAVITY PATENT HISTORY (http://www.isscasis.org/portals/0/docs/2012%20patent%20history.pdf )

I have found a paper in which the microgravity patents history is analysed. It
could be useful to identify potential applications for the drone.

ZERO-G RESEARCH PROGRAMS (https://www.gozerog.com/index.cfm?

fuseaction=Research_Programs.welcome )

SUBORBITAL. INDUSTRY AT THE EDGE OF SPACE (book uploaded to

dropbox)