Free-fall tower and capsule

The free-fall tower in Bremen is used for experiments under conditions of weightlessness, which are otherwise only possible in space. That saves the high costs of a space mission.

A capsule is raised to the top of the 110-metre-tall tower and released. During the nearly five seconds which it takes to fall, a state of weightlessness exists inside the capsule. The tube lining the tower is evacuated, so as to avoid any air resistance during the free fall, which is monitored by means of video cameras.

The capsule exhibited here contains a set-up of IHI Co., Ltd., Tokyo, used in a German-Japanese joint-project on fuel droplet autoignition.