Fallturm Bremen is a

drop tower A drop tower or big drop is a type of amusement ride incorporating a central structure or tower. Drop towers vary in height, passenger capacity, lift type, and brake type. Many are custom-made, although there are some mass-produced designs. T ...

at the

Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity The Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) is a German scientific institution of University of Bremen involved in research in space technology with applications, among other things, in fundamental physics and gravitation. More ...

at the

University of Bremen The University of Bremen (German: ''Universität Bremen'') is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries. It is one of 11 institutions which were successful in the category "Institutional Strategi ...

Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state cons ...

. It was built between 1988 and 1990, and includes a 122-metre-high drop tube (actual drop distance is 110 m), in which for 4.74 seconds (with release of the drop capsule), or for over 9 seconds (with the use of a

catapult A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stor ...

, installed in 2004)

weightlessness Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G. Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fie ...

can be produced. The entire tower, formed out of a reinforced

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

shank, is 146 metres high. The 122-metre drop tube is free-standing within the concrete shell, in order to prevent the transmission of wind-induced

vibration Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum—or random, su ...

s, which could otherwise result in the airtight drop capsule hitting the walls. The drop tube is pumped down prior to every free-fall experiment to about 10 Pa (~ 1/10 000

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A ...

). Evacuation takes about 1.5 hours.

External links

* , ZARM (Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity), University of Bremen * * Tom Scott, , 16 January 2017 archived a
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on 27 April 2022 Towers in Germany Buildings and structures in Bremen (city) Weightlessness {{Bremen-struct-stub 261x261px, Upper part of Fallturm Bremen