16.06.20 – ESA Academy has released three calls for proposals in the gravity-related experiment programmes.
Spin Your Thesis! 2021
The Spin Your Thesis! (SYT) programme offers university students (bachelor, master and PhD levels) the opportunity to perform scientific or technological research in hypergravity conditions in a number of fields such as biology, biochemistry, microbiology, optical physics, material sciences, fluid dynamics, geology and plasma physics. A Large Diameter Centrifuge (LDC) has been developed by ESA that can accommodate experiments in hypergravity conditions with levels ranging from 1 to 20 g.
Student teams with ideas for experiments should read more about the programme and eligibility criteria on the Spin Your Thesis! webpage and submit their proposal before the 15th November 2020 23:59 CET deadline. Selection of experiments will be done in late November, after which teams will have one year to develop their experiments with support from ESA and the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA). The experiment campaign will be run in September/October 2021.
Drop Your Thesis! 2021
The Drop Your Thesis! (DYT) programme gives university students (bachelor, master and PhD levels), the opportunity to perform scientific or technological research in microgravity conditions at the world-class ZARM Drop Tower facility in Bremen, Germany. The gravity levels that are obtained in the Drop Tower can be as low as 10-6 g and last either 4.74 seconds (when the tower is used in drop mode) or 9.3 seconds (when catapult mode is used). This is similar to gravity levels that are obtained for experiments on the International Space Station, and is enough for a multitude of scientific research opportunities.
Student teams with ideas for experiments should read more about the programme and eligibility criteria on the Drop Your Thesis! webpage and submit their proposal before the 22th November 2020 23:59 CET deadline. Selection of experiments will be done in early December, after which the teams will have one year to develop their experiments with the support from ESA, ZARM and the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA). The experiment campaign will be run in October/November 2021.
Fly Your Thesis! 2021
The Fly Your Thesis! (FYT) programme gives master students and PhD candidates the opportunity to fly their scientific experiment or technological research in microgravity conditions. The experiments can be related to fluid physics, chemistry, biology, human physiology, material sciences, heat transfer and astrophysics. The parabolic flight campaign takes place on the Airbus A310 AirZeroG aircraft, which is operated by Novespace from Bordeaux, France. Each campaign consists of a series of three flights of 31 parabolas each. Each parabola provides about 22 seconds of weightlessness.
Student teams with ideas for experiments should read more about the programme and eligibility criteria on the Fly Your Thesis! website and submit their proposal before the 4th October 2020 at 23:59 CET deadline. Selection of experiments will be done in November 2020 after a selection workshop where shortlisted teams will defend their proposals in front of a panel of experts. Selected teams will then have one year to develop their experiments with the support from ESA, Novespace and the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA). The experiment campaign will be run in October/November 2021.
Original article by ESA Education