Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Don't Throw Rice in Zero-G!

There are few firsts left when it comes to marriage and we are about to enter the final frontier. Weddings in space aren't quite there yet (although a Russian cosmonaut on the ISS got married via video conference in 2003) so Noah Fulmor and Erica Finnegan decided it would be an acceptable compromise to get married in weightlessness. They are getting married aboard the legendary Vomit Comet, a plane that can simulate weightlessness in about 30 second increments by flying in a series of parabolas. They used the Vomit Comet to film the weightless scenes in the movie Apollo 13 and astronauts have trained in these types of planes for many years.

A zero-g wedding has some logistical issues to consider. For instance, you need to consider the design of the wedding dress as gravity won't serve its normal function of pulling the dress down. You probably don't want to throw rice or the garter in zero-g. I have to admit the idea of floating down the aisle is kind of cool.

The ring is made with pieces of a the Gibeon meteorite, another nice touch.

I am not going to reveal my cool geeky wedding ideas any more since it seems people are starting to steal them!

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

2 comments:

kkdither said...

Sounds about right. 30 seconds of marital exictement, a lifetime of .....

"Oh honey, you don't need a diamond, here is a space rock?"

OrbsCorbs said...

So, are they going to confine the ceremony to only the 30 second intervals during which they're actually weightless? Do they pause between times?

What if the preacher/judge/whatever vomits?