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Weightlessness to fight against cancer: this is the hypothesis tested by scientists in Belgium, on board gliders. If the results are conclusive, they will be able to continue their research in space.
At an altitude of 1,000 meters, Vladimir Pletzer’s glider flight is anything but a peaceful stroll. He is not a pilot, but a scientist. It will dive down to create a situation of weightlessness and measure the effects on cancerous tumours. Before boarding, the crew took samples from a laboratory in the Netherlands.
Therapeutic treatments
Their experiment aims to determine if weightlessness can slow the spread of disease. The glider makes it possible to test the same conditions as in space. “We go through a phase of two or three seconds where we weigh three to four times the weight of our body (…) then we enter weightlessness and the weight goes to zero. Objective: to develop therapeutic treatments. If the results are conclusive, scientists will be able to continue their experiments in space, aboard the Chinese station in orbit around the Earth.
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