From Brian Gaff:
Are you deliberately being pedantic?If you understand gravity, then you are
the only person on this earth who does. Is there in fact anywhere where
there is zero gravity? Its merely a shorthand term for free fall with no
acceleration or deceleration. It reminds me of that old joke about the truck
which was overloaded with budgerigars until they all took off..

I am talking about the most basic understanding of what gravity is and
what it is not. A first cut that Newton as well as Einstein could
agree on. As simple as this:

TRUE OR FALSE - THERE IS NO GRAVITY IN SPACE.

Controversial? Pedantic? Have a look at what NASA astronauts
themselves have to say...


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"According to Chang-Diaz, the sensation of weightlessness is much like
one might expect. "With no gravity, it's just like you're floating,"
he said. "You can fly like Peter Pan." "
(http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2000/05/12/998/)

"And then, the last part is we'll go to space where there's no gravity
and see how our lungs work."
"The scientists will be looking at us in no gravity."
"You actually eliminate it because there is no gravity."
(http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/.../sts-107/crew/
intbrown.html)

"The other neat thing is that since there is no gravity, if you're
sitting in the commander's seat, I can actually hover above you so
that we can make better use of space in space."
(http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podca...STS118webcast-
transcript_prt.htm)

"Out in space there is no gravity to speak of, and there are no walls
- so we really don’t have the feeling of up or down, forward and aft,
left and right at all."
-- Full quote in context:
"With the help of the divers we can float at a certain depth in the
water and practice our tasks. However, gravity is still there so we
still have a sense of up and down. Plus the pool walls give you the
sense of right, left, forward and aft in your periphery vision. Out in
space there is no gravity to speak of, and there are no walls - so we
really don’t have the feeling of up or down, forward and aft, left and
right at all."
-- Also this:
"It is amazing how microgravity creeps in. There really are no rest
days up here because the lack of gravity is always there, eating away
at your fitness level, bone mass and muscle mass."
(http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st.../expedition15/
journal_sunita_williams_11_prt.htm)

"SCOTT: Hi. I'm Scott. I'm from New Jersey. I was wondering, how do
astronauts sleep in space because there's no gravity."
-- The astronaut who answered this question at length provided no
correction.
(http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/
115_robinson_transcript.html)
=========================


And in case your conclusion is that this view of gravity in space is
particular to human spaceflight, this one is out of JPL:


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Since there's no gravity in space, Lemur could work upside down, as
long as one limb is anchored.
(http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/roboticexplorers/
lemur-20060511.html)
=========================


There are many, many more quotes like this out there. Certain
official NASA websites that attempt to explain "microgravity" are
particularly egregious. They speak of "zero gravity" and
"microgravity" with no demonstrated understanding of the most
fundamental distinction between gravitational acceleration versus
other types of acceleration. How ironic to see this coming from an
administration that continually stresses how it promotes education in
science. What NASA is promoting here is BAD science. This topic has
been discussed at length in years past. Here are links to two old
threads:

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...3c8a2847cbd0d7
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...7c82364fcd6be5


~ CT