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The term micro-g environment (also µg, often referred to by the term microgravity) is more or less a synonym of weightlessness and zero-g, but indicates that g-forces are not quite zero, just very small. The symbol for microgravity, µg, was used on the insignias of Space Shuttle flights STS-87 and STS-107, because these flights were devoted to microgravity research in low Earth orbit.
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Absence of gravity
A "stationary" micro-g environment would require travelling far enough into deep space so as to reduce the effect of gravity by attenuation to almost zero. This is the simplest in conception, but requires traveling an enormous distance, rendering it most impractical. For example, to reduce the gravity of the Earth by a factor of one million, one needs to be at a distance of 6 million kilometers from the Earth, but to reduce the gravity of the Sun to this amount one has to be at a distance of 3.7 billion kilometers. (The gravity due to the rest of the Milky Way is already smaller than one millionth of the gravity on Earth, so we do not need to move away further from its center). Thus it is not impossible, but it has only been achieved so far by four interstellar probes (Voyager 1 and 2, part of the Voyager program, Pioneer 10 and 11 part of the Pioneer program) and they did not return to Earth. To reduce the gravity to one thousandth of that on Earth's surface, one needs to be at a distance of 200,000 km.
At a distance relatively close to Earth (less than 3000 km), gravity is only slightly reduced. As an object orbits a body such as the Earth, gravity is still attracting objects towards the Earth and the object is accelerated downward at almost 1g. Because the objects are typically moving laterally with respect to the surface at such immense speeds, the object will not lose altitude because of the curvature of the Earth. When viewed from an orbiting observer, other close objects in space appear to be floating because everything is being pulled towards Earth at the same speed, but also moving forward as the Earth's surface "falls" away below. All these objects are in free fall, not zero gravity.
Compare the gravitational potential at some of these locations.
Free fall
What remains is a micro-g environment moving in free fall, i.e. there are no forces other than gravity acting on the people or objects in this environment. To prevent air drag making the free fall less perfect, objects and people can free-fall in a capsule that itself, while not necessarily in free fall, is accelerated as in free fall. This can be done by applying a force to compensate for air drag. Alternatively free fall can be carried out in space, or in a vacuum tower or shaft.
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 recreational purposes.
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.
Tidal and inertial acceleration
Objects in orbit are not perfectly weightless due to several effects:
Metal spheres
In a shot tower (now obsolete), molten metal (such as lead or steel), was dripped through a sieve into free fall. With sufficient height (several hundred feet), the metal would be solid enough to resist impact (usually in a water bath) at the bottom of the tower. While the shot may have been slightly deformed by its passage through the air and by impact at the bottom, this method produced metal spheres of sufficient roundness to be used directly in shotgun shells or to be refined by further processing for applications requiring higher accuracy.
High-quality crystals
While not yet a commercial application, there has been interest in growing crystals in micro-g, as in a space station or automated artificial satellite, in an attempt to reduce crystal lattice defects. Such defect-free crystals may prove useful for certain microelectronic applications and also to produce crystals for subsequent X-ray crystallography.