Microgravity Centre

The Microgravity Centre (Centro de Microgravidade), colloquially known as the "MicroG",[1] at PUCRS university, Porto Alegre, Brazil, was initially created as a laboratory in 1999[2] by Professor Thais Russomano MD MSc PhD, as the first[not verified in body] academic and research establishment dedicated to Space Life Sciences in Latin America.

It evolved into a fully multidisciplinary centre in 2006, expanding its areas of research beyond aerospace medicine and engineering, to include pharmaceuticals, biomechanics and physiotherapy, among others.

Commonplace activities include training Aeronautical Sciences students in aviation medicine, studies to understand how the human body reacts and works in Low-G or Zero-G environments, and engineering and construction of devices and tools to study and improve human activity in space.

Some examples of the work of the MicroG include; lower body negative pressure (LBNP) box; lower body positive pressure (LBPP) box; Bárány chair; body suspension device for microgravity and hypogravity simulations; tilt-table for microgravity simulation; small centrifuge to study the effects of hypergravity on plants; small hypobaric chamber; portable dark chambers; pressure measurement system for use during the Valsalva Manoeuvre and the Earlobe Arterial Blood Collector (EABC).

[8][9][10] The MicroG has collaborated with several national and international partners around the world, exchanging research, teaching, students and professors.