Vladimir Pletser

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Vladimir Pletser in free-float during parabolic flights aboard the NASA DC9/30 in October 1995.

Vladimir Pletser (born 28 February 1956) is Director of Space Training Operations at

ESA
.

He is an expert in

parabolic flights for which he holds a world record.[1] He is known as ‘Mister Parabolic Flights’, ‘Mister Parabolas’,[2] ‘Homo Parabolicus’[2] or ‘Mister Microgravity’.[3]

An astronaut candidate for Belgium since 1991, he spent two months in training in 1995 at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Selected by the Mars Society in 2001, he participated in three international campaigns of crewed Mars mission simulations.

Early life

Pletser was born in Brussels, Belgium.

Graduated in Latin-Mathematics from the Institut Saint-Boniface of Brussels in 1973 and in Special Scientific from the Collège Saint-Michel of Brussels in 1974; graduated from the

Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, as civil engineer in mechanics, specialism dynamics and systems (1979), Master in physics in space geodesy (1980), and Ph.D. in physics in astronomy and astrophysics
(1990).

Organisations

International Academy of Astronautics; International Astronautical Federation; Committee on Space Research (COSPAR); European Low Gravity Research Association; European Physical Society; Belgian Physical Society; Société royale belge d'Astronomie, de Météorologie et de Physique du Globe; American Mathematical Society; Belgian Mathematical Society; British Interplanetary Society; Association of Mars Explorers; The Mars Society; Mars Society Belgium; Euro Space Society; European Interplanetary Free Floaters; The Society of Interplanetary Free Floaters and other scientific and technical organizations.

Career

Pletser worked as Research Engineer from 1980 to 1981 at the Department of External Geophysics of the

Université Catholique de Louvain and detached at the University of Kinshasa, Congo (ex-Zaire
), where he lectured until 1985 in Physics, Applied Mathematics, Astronomy and Geophysics.

Career at ESA

In 1985, Pletser joined the Microgravity Project and Platform Division in the Human Spaceflight and Operations Directorate at

ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands
.

Development of scientific instrumentation

Since 1985, he has followed the technical development of scientific payloads and was directly involved in 30 microgravity experiments carried out during space missions as Experiment Coordinator and Responsible for ground operations for experiments:

  1. in
    fluid physics with the Advanced Fluid Physics Module[4] on Spacelab D2 - STS-55 mission of April 1993, and the Bubble, Drop and Particle Unit[5][6] on Spacelab LMS – STS-78
    mission of June 1996.
  2. in protein crystallization with the Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility[5] on Spacehab-STS-95 mission of October 1998, and the Protein Crystallisation Diagnostics Facility[7] (PCDF) that flew aboard the ISS Columbus module (STS-122) from February 2008 to July 2009 (STS-119/STS-127).
  3. on zeolites with the instruments Zeogrid[8] in the ISS Russian Zvezda module in October 1992 and Nanoslab[8] in the ISS Destiny module in October 1992 and October 1993.
  4. on symbiotic processes between fishes and algae with the instrument AquaHab[9] aboard the Russian satellite Foton M3 in September 2007.

Parabolic flights

From 1985 till early 2016, Pletser was responsible for

microgravity
experiments.

ESA Research and Student campaigns

He organized and led 65

Airbus A300 ZERO-G[11][12] from 1997 to 2014, and the Airbus A310 ZERO-G[13] since 2015. In 2011 and 2012, he organized and led with CNES and DLR the first two Joint European Partial-g Parabolic Flight campaigns for research at Moon and Mars gravity levels[14][15]
with the Airbus A300 ZERO-G.

From 1994 to 2006, he took part in the organization and the flights of 8 ESA Student campaigns with CNES’s

Airbus A300 ZERO-G from 2000 to 2006. Since 2010, he participates in ESA's ‘Fly Your Thesis [1]’ programme,[16]
inviting European University students to submit experiment proposals related to their thesis research. The selected experiments take then part in research campaigns.

Brussels and Belgium student campaigns

In 2002, he initiated a new project in Belgium, to have secondary school students flying in weightlessness during ESA Student campaigns. Collaborating with the Region of

Belgian Federal Science Policy Office and the Euro Space Society for secondary school students of the whole of Belgium.[19] In July 2006, six teams of Belgian secondary schools participated in the ninth ESA Student campaign with the Airbus A300 landing again in Brussels
.

Participation in other campaigns

Pletser was invited to participate in several other campaigns. In 1992, he participated in a

Israël. He takes part in a series of parabolic flights on board a Grob G103a Twin II
glider organized by ISU's Space Sciences Department, performing several experiments proposed by ISU students, conducting therefore the first scientific parabolic flights in the Middle East.

Number of experiments and parabolas

During the 90 campaigns in which he took part, he supervised a total of 1000

Spacehab, the Russian space station Mir, and the International Space Station. He accumulated 7389 parabolas, totaling 39h 34m in weightlessness, equivalent to 26.3 Earth orbits
, more than the first American, the first Russian, or the first Chinese astronauts. He accumulated a total of 53m in Martian gravity and 50m in lunar gravity during partial-g parabolic flights.

World record for the number of aircraft in parabolic flight

Pletser is the only person in the world having flown parabolas on 14 different aircraft: NASA's

ASK21
glider in 2018.

Mars Crewed Mission Simulation campaigns

FMARS

In 2001, Pletser was selected

Extra-vehicular activity
(EVA) time during 16 simulated EVA expeditions, including 9 as Commander.

ESA and NASA astronaut selections

Pletser was selected in May 1991 by Belgium among 550 candidates as laboratory specialist astronaut candidate,

Payload Specialist astronauts, and Dr Luca Urbani (ASI) and Mr. Pedro Duque
(ESA) as alternate Payload Specialist astronauts.

Academic and scientific career

Pletser is visiting professor at several universities in Europe, Africa, Asia, and America. He has given several hundreds of conferences, seminars, and invited lectures in

rings of Uranus and Neptune are calculated before their discovery by the Voyager 2 probe.[34] In 1998, he demonstrated the hypothesis that the Ishango bone, the oldest mathematical tool of humankind, is a primitive calculator in bases 6 and 12.[35] Having been subject of an electroencephalographic experiment in parabolic flights in 1991, he took part in the result analysis and proposed a new method based on the chaotic nonlinear dynamics,[36] yielding in 1999 to the awarding of a patent.[37] He is pursuing research in Number Theory, on Generalised Mersenne numbers, on sums of powers of consecutive integers,[38][39] on multiple of triangular numbers,[40][41] on characteristics of Pell's equation solutions.[42] He is a regular contributor to the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences
.

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ a b c "Most aircraft flown in parabolas by an individual". Guinness World Records Corporate. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Dans l'antichambre d'un vol spatial". Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 18 November 2000. pp. 3–7. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  3. ^ "5000ème parabole pour " Monsieur Microgravité " !" (in French). ESA. 31 March 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  4. ^
    doi:10.1016/0273-1177(91)90268-O
    .
  5. ^
    PMID 14971369
    . Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  6. ^
    doi:10.1016/S0094-5765(97)00135-5
    .
  7. doi:10.1016/S0022-0248(98)00865-3.
    "Protein experiment starts in Columbus laboratory"
    . ESA. 27 March 2009. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  8. ^ a b "Study of the structure and morphology of zeogrids obtained under microgravity conditions (ZEOGRID) - Study of aggregation mechanism and kinetics of ZSM-5 and Silicalite-1 nanoslabs into ZSM-5 / Silicalite-1 hybrid phases under microgravity conditions (NANOSLAB)". ESA.
  9. ^ "Foton-M3 Mission" (PDF). ESA. 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  10. ^ a b "PH-LAB: Cessna Citation II research aircraft" (PDF). ESA. 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  11. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2015.05.022
    .
  12. ^ Pletser, V.; Harrod, J. (2014). "The Science of Gravity; A new era of ESA experiments on parabolic flights". ESA Bulletin (160): 22–33. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  13. S2CID 255560560
    . Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  14. S2CID 255560560
    . Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  15. ^ Pletser, V.; Rouquette, S.; Friedrich, U.; Clervoy, J.F.; Gharib, T.; Gai, F. (2013). "Two Joint European Partial-g Parabolic Flight Campaigns for science and exploration at Moon and Mars gravity levels". Paper IAC-13.A2.3.11x19544, Microgravity Sciences and Process Symposium, Session A2 and Space Exploration Symposium, Session A3, 64th IAF Congress, Beijing.
  16. S2CID 255560560
    .
  17. ^ "Bordeaux-Bruxelles-Bordeaux: des élèves belges en chute libre à bord d'un laboratoire volant de l'ESA" (in French). ESA. 29 May 2003. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  18. ^ "Busy weeks ahead for high-flying students". ESA. 15 July 2003. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "Vingt jeunes d'écoles de Bruxelles à la découverte de la microgravité" (in French). ESA. 18 July 2003. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "Expérience " d'enfer " en apesanteur". Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 23 July 2003. p. 18. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  19. ^ "Elèves du secondaire, éprouvez l'effet Zero G!" (in French). ESA. 19 September 2005. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "Des élèves de six écoles secondaires vont faire l'expérience de la microgravité" (in French). ESA. 20 March 2006. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  20. ^ a b "Paul's parabelflüge" (in German). 9 July 2004. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  21. ^ Pletser, V. (November 2001). "Simulation of a manned Martian mission in the Arctic Circle" (PDF). ESA Bulletin. 108. ESA: 121–123. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "Mars Society Flashline Volunteers Selected for 2001 Field Season". SpaceRef. 15 March 2001. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "Un Belge "sur Mars"". Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 9 April 2001. p. 7. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "Un Belge sur Mars pendant dix jours Le docteur Pletser séjourne dans un module martien... posé en Arctique". Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 2 July 2001. p. 7. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "Mission martienne pour un Belge". La Dernière Heure (in French). Brussels. 29 June 2001. p. 14. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  22. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2008.07.005.
    "Sale temps pour l'équipage martien posé dans le Grand Nord canadien"
    . Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 19 July 2001. p. 7. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  23. ^ Real, D. (6 July 2002). "Mission to ... Utah?". The Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Texas: Dallas News. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    Laurence, C. (5 May 2002). "Life on Mars". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "Objectif Mars : Un astronaute belge en isolement total dans le désert de l'Utah". La Dernière Heure (in French). Brussels. 8 April 2002. p. 14. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  24. ^ Pletser, V.; Lasseur, C. (October 2003), "First observation regarding the psychological impact of growing vegetables during a manned Mars mission simulation at the Mars Desert Research Station" (PDF), First observation regarding the psychological impact of growing vegetables during a manned Mars mission simulation at the Mars Desert Research Station, Proceedings 54th International Astronautical Federation Congress, Paper IAC-03-IAA.10.3.04, International Astronautical Federation
  25. ^ "En route for 'Mars'". ESA. 29 September 2004. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  26. ^ "Postcard from Mars 2". ESA. 8 April 2002. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  27. ISBN 978-2-8040-1773-6.
    "En avant, Mars !"
    (in French). Labrot. 30 June 2002. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  28. ^ Foing, B.H.; Boche-Sauvan, L.; Stoker, C.; Ehrenfreund, P.; Wendt, L.; Gross, C.; Thiel, C.; Peters, S.; Borst, A.; Zhavaleta, J.; Sarrazin, P.; Blake, D.; Page, J.; Pletser, V.; Monaghan, E. (2010), "ExoHab & EuroGeoMars campaigns: Human exploration and astrobiology", ExoHab & EuroGeoMars campaigns: Human exploration and astrobiology (PDF), Proceedings Astrobiology Science Conference: Evolution and Life: Surviving Catastrophes and Extremes on Earth and Beyond, Paper 5625
  29. S2CID 122357805
    .
  30. ^ "Cinq Belges prêts à partir à la conquête de l'espace. Vladimir Pletser peut officiellement rêver d'Hermes. Vivre le syndrome…". Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 3 May 1991. pp. 1, 17. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "La route linguistique vers les étoiles : trois francophones sur nos cinq candidats astronautes". Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 2 May 1991. p. 17. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "Spacefacts biography of Vladimir Pletser". Spacefacts. 30 October 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "ESA Astronaut Selections" (PDF). ESA Bulletin. 135. ESA: 69–70. August 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  31. ^ "Un deuxième astronaute belge ?". Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 25 March 1995. p. 27. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  32. ^ a b "Pour sensibiliser les jeunes aux sciences, Jacques Simonet peut compter sur Vladimir Pletser Un candidat astronaute va descendre dans les écoles". Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 17 February 2000. p. 17. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  33. ^ Pletser, V. (1990). "On exponential distance relations in planetary and satellite systems, observations and origin". Doctoral Dissertation, Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics G. Lemaître, Dept of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain: 164.
  34. S2CID 122936979
    .
  35. ^ Pletser, V.; Huylebrouck D. (1999). "The Ishango Artifact: the Missing Base 12 Link" (PDF). Forma. 14 (4): 339–346. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  36. PMID 12575723
    .
  37. ^ US 6658369, Pletser, V. & Quadens, O., "Method and device for the predictive determination of a parameter representative of the mental activity of a person", published 2003-12-02 
  38. ^ Pletser, V. (2023). "Euler's and the Taxi-Cab relations and other numbers that can be written twice as sums of two cubed integers". Open Journal of Mathematical Sciences. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  39. ^ Pletser, V. (2015). "General solutions of sums of consecutive cubed integers equal to squared integers". Journal of Number Theory. 156: 394–413. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  40. ^ Pletser, V. (2022). "Recurrent Relations for Triangular Numbers Multiples of Other Triangular Numbers". Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics. 53 (3): 782–791. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  41. ^ Pletser, V. (2021). "Congruence Properties of Indices of Triangular Numbers Multiple of Other Triangular Numbers". Open Journal of Mathematical Sciences. 5 (1): 262–269. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  42. ^ Pletser, V. (2013). "On continued fraction development of quadratic irrationals having all periodic terms but last equal and associated general solutions of the Pell equation". Journal of Number Theory. 136: 339–353. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  43. ISSN 0376-4265. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
    "35th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign Day One: foggy take-off, sunny finish"
    . ESA. 15 October 2003. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  44. ^ "Les 200 personnes qui font bouger Bruxelles". La Tribune de Bruxelles (in French). Brussels. 7 December 2006. p. 32. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  45. ^ "Lift-off for Foton microgravity mission". ESA. 14 September 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  46. ^ "EUROMIR 94 heralds new era of cooperation in space" (Press release). ESA N° 28-1994. 28 September 1994. Retrieved 28 January 2012.

External links

  • [2], Biographies of astronauts and cosmonauts, Spacefacts. Retrieved 28 January 2012
  • [3], Владимир Плетцер, Коcмичеcкия Энциклопедия ASTROnote, 2 May 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2012
  • [4], Website of the ‘Space Week 2009’ at the Free University of Brussels (Belgium). Retrieved 28 January 2012
  • [5], Euro Space Society. Retrieved 28 January 2012
  • [6],Profile. Retrieved 7 November 2023
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vladimir Pletser.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vladimir_Pletser&oldid=1190581073"