# How do they do zero gravity effects in space movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2002, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902 "2002-10-12T01:21:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902/21 "2002-10-13T22:59:40Z")
> [@](#): > > I have always wondered how the peeps in hollywood do special effects with astronauts floating around in their spaceships. [Master Thespian] ACTING!! [/Master Thespian] ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902/22 "2002-10-14T19:52:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jinwicked \* > \*\*I’ve been out to the Johnson Space Centre, and out at NASA there is, located in one building, a very very very big “swimming pool” like thing, where apparently they test the spacesuits and other equipment to cheaply simulate the floating aspect and I suppose air-tightness of everything. I think I remember my tour guide telling me that they had employed the same method for filming some anti-gravity scenes in movies, but that was seven or eight years ago and I don’t remember the name of the film now. > > I could be wrong about the reasons they send guys in spacesuits in the pool, but it was definitely there. I have a picture of it somewhere in my box of photos from that trip. It was very big and insanely deep, and you could only view it and what they were working on from this balcony with windows all the way up to the ceiling (so you couldn’t jump off the ledge or try to dive in, I guess. :)) \*\* You’re thinking of the Neutral Buoyancy Tank, where astronauts practice work they’ll be doing outside the shuttle (such as attaching parts to the space station or working on a sattellite) in water with carefully weighted spacesuits that allow them to float almost like they would in space (weighted just right so they don’t rise to the surface or sink to the bottom). There are also safety divers on hand at all times in cast the astronauts have any difficulty. The tank has an exact replica of the shuttle’s cargo bay, complete with a working robot arm. In _Armageddon_, the film crew was allowed to use the Neutral Buoyancy Tank to show thier characters rehearsing their mission - I don’t remember if that made it into the final movie. I think it might have been used in _Space Cowboys_ as well, but I might be remembering wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902/23 "2002-10-14T20:17:39Z")
The helium balloon trick is a great idea. Slowing down the film is only a rough approximation. You can’t simulate the gait of someone in 1/6 G by slowing down the film. The dust coming off the wheels of the rover is the toughest part, both because you need low-G and a vacuum to get it right. In fact, I always point to this as a shortcut whenever some goofball starts talking to me about how the moon landings were a hoax. My standard response is, “Here’s where you can find some footage showing the rovers driving around on the moon. Watch the way the soil moves after it’s kicked up from the back wheels. Get back to me when you can explain how they simulated that using 1970’s video technology.” ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902/24 "2002-10-15T12:18:29Z")
For filmmakers on a budget, the zero-gee stripping scene in _Barbarella_ was done by having Jane Fonda lie on a pane of glass positioned in the middle of the set, then shooting down from the ceiling to make it look like she was floating in mid-air. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902/25 "2002-10-15T12:58:59Z")
Robert Heinlein described how they did the zero-g effects in **Destination Moon** in an article in Astounding Science Fiction that was later reprinted in **Focus on the Science Fiction Film** and **Requiem**. The effects in **2001** were described in Arthur C. Clarke’s **Lost Worlds of 2001** and in Jerome Agel’s **The Making of 2001**. In a word, it’s “wires”, but saying that they do it with wires is like saying magicians do it with mirrors – sometimes it’s literally true, but to try and pass it off as simply “wires” (or mirrors) glosses over a hell of a lot of precision, craft, and artistry. Of course, in a lot of movies they did it with matte effects, too, and lately an awful lot is done with computer compositing and animation. (think of the floating pens in **2010** for the former, and the floating globules of Klingon blood in **Star Trek VI** for the latter). Mike Jittlov used the “Vomit Comet” for zero-g effects in one of his shorts, long before **Apollo 13**. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902/26 "2002-10-15T14:11:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Apparently, a lot of barf bags got used during the zero-g filming in Apollo 13 But only by the cameramen, if you believe Bill Paxton in an interview in this month’s Empire magazine. He claims that none of the cast barfed, “just those pussy cameramen” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902/27 "2002-10-16T02:00:34Z")
This is **G.Q.** and so, as a professional cameraman who has read through the articles on the filming of this NOT featuring Mr. Paxton, I will not use the kind of gutter obscenity I wish I could use. Suffice to say that the cameramen I know have put themselves in harm’s way countless times (with proper safety precautions ) to make people like Mr. Paxton look pretty. I’ve been shot at more than once, and taken other extraordinary measures to get good shots. Vomiting doesn’t earn that appellation. If that was indeed his descriptive phrase, so be it. He’s a liar. :mad: Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902/28 "2002-10-16T11:17:37Z")
Yep, that was his phrase (maybe not verbatim, but that was the gist). As the 😉 was meant to imply, I don’t really believe him… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-do-zero-gravity-effects-in-space-movies/131902.md?page=1)