Development of educational tools to demonstrate the effects of hyper and microgravity on different test bodies

Educational and outreach programs in space sciences have been a major concern since the beginning of the Space Era. Education curricula in Brazil rarely consider topics related to manned and unmanned space flight. This lack in the Brazilian education system has motivated the development of educational tools, used to demonstrate the effects of hyper- and microgravity on test bodies, both gravitational environments commonly found in aerospace missions. This paper presents the conception and development of a lift and a centrifuge for microgravity and hypergravity research use, respectively. Experiments were recorded via a digital camera and the images acquired were processed for better visualization of the effects of simulated variation in the gravitational force on test bodies. A CD-ROM was then produced for academic purposes. The final goal of this study is to motivate the insertion of space science related topics in the Brazilian elementary and high schools curricula.