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Location !! Gravity due to the Earth !! Gravity due to the Sun !! Gravity due to the rest of Milky Way !! Total | ||||
Earth's surface | 9.81 m/s2 | 6 mm/s2| | 200 pm/s2 = 6 mm/s/yr | 9.81 m/s2 |
Low Earth orbit | 9 m/s2| | 6 mm/s2 | 200 pm/s2 | 9 m/s2 |
200,000 km from Earth | 10 mm/s2| | 6 mm/s2 | 200 pm/s2 | up to 12 mm/s2 |
6 million km from Earth | 10 μm/s2| | 6 mm/s2 | 200 pm/s2 | 6 mm/s2 |
3700 million km from Earth | 29 pm/s2| | 10 μm/s2 | 200 pm/s2 | 10 μm/s2 |
Voyager 1 (17,000 million km from Earth) | 1 pm/s2| | 500 nm/s2 | 200 pm/s2 | 500 nm/s2 |
0.1 light-year from Earth | 400 am/s2| | 200 pm/s2 | 200 pm/s2 | up to 400 pm/s2 |
From stationarity the gravity from "the rest of the Milky Way" would cause a free fall, covering a distance of 100 pm in one second, 360 nm in one minute, 1.3 mm in one hour, 70 cm in one day, 37 m in one week, 100 km in one year, and 10,000 km in 10 years (at a speed at that last location of 6 cm/s).
Compare the gravitational potential at some of these locations.
The two cases that can be distinguished are that where the situation is only temporary because after some time the Earth's surface is or would be reached, and the case where the situation can go on indefinitely.
A temporary micro-g environment exists in a drop tube (in a tower or shaft), a sub-orbital spaceflight, e.g. with a sounding rocket, and in an airplane such as used by NASA's Reduced Gravity Research Program, aka the Vomit Comet, and by the Zero Gravity Corporation. A temporary micro-g environment is applied for training of astronauts, for some experiments, for filming movies, and for fun.
A micro-g environment for an indefinite time, while also possible in a spaceship going to infinity in a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit, is most practical in an Earth orbit. This is the environment commonly experienced in the International Space Station, Space Shuttle, etc. While this scenario is the most suitable for scientific experimentation and commercial exploitation, it is still quite expensive to operate in, mostly due to launch costs.
Objects in orbit are not perfectly weightless due to several effects:
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