[Zero Gravity Experiments]

De-accessed by NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center via GSA Auction;

Private Collector, Acquired in the Above

Atmospheric cloud physics is primarily concerned with understanding the formation of clouds and the release of precipitation. Despite this simple description, clouds can be immensely complex phenomena, as many events that either consume or release a tremendous amount of energy often occur simultaneously within a single cloud.

Because of the need to understand the microphysical mechanisms happening within clouds as they consume or release energy, researchers at the Marshall Space Flight Center and elsewhere proposed a zero-gravity multi-experiment cloud physics laboratory, housed within the Space Shuttle, to study evaporation, condensation, electrical discharge, and other weather-related physical phenomena. The zero-gravity cloud physics laboratory may never have been built, and weather satellites have now become the favored tool in the collection of data about clouds.