Hypergravity and microgravity opportunities for University Students
Nov 28, 2009
The European Space Agency is proud to announce the first edition of two new programmes: ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ and ‘Drop Your Thesis!’. Through these programmes, several teams of university students throughout Europe will be given the opportunity to carry out experiments in hypergravity and microgravity.
‘Spin Your Thesis!’ will enable students to perform hypergravity experiments in the Large Diameter Centrifuge (LDC) in ESTEC, the Netherlands. The LDC allows samples to be exposed to acceleration forces of 1–20 times Earth’s gravity. Each of the four arms can support two gondolas, with a maximum payload of 80 kg per gondola.
Students from around Europe are invited to design - as part of their syllabus - a scientific or technology experiment that requires hypergravity for a few hours or days. The submission deadline for proposals is the 21st of January 2010. A Review Board will select four teams to further develop their experiments and eventually perform them during ESA’s first Student Large Diameter Centrifuge campaign in the spring or summer of 2010. This campaign will last two weeks, with two teams using the equipment each week.
For “Drop Your Thesis!” students will develop microgravity experiments to be performed in the ZARM Drop Tower Facility, in Bremen. This facility is one of the most sophisticated and high-quality research centres of its kind in Europe and boasts a 146 m high tower that gives experiments up to 9.3 s of microgravity.
Interested student teams are required to submit their proposals by 1 March 2010. The proposals received will be evaluated by a Review Board that will select the winning team. This team will perform its experiment during ESA’s 2nd Student ZARM Drop Tower Campaign, to be held in Bremen for three weeks in the autumn of 2010.
For both programmes, the selected teams will be supported by the ESA Education Office, ZARM or LDC engineers and members of the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA). The ESA Education Office will offer financial support to cover part of the cost of the experiments, travel and accommodation.
Teams from ESA Member States and Cooperating States are encouraged to register on the ESA Education Office's project portal and upload their proposals for the programmes.
All the information pertaining to the two programmes can be found on www.esa.int/education together with information on several other projects and opportunities organised by the ESA Education Office.
Students from around Europe are invited to design - as part of their syllabus - a scientific or technology experiment that requires hypergravity for a few hours or days. The submission deadline for proposals is the 21st of January 2010. A Review Board will select four teams to further develop their experiments and eventually perform them during ESA’s first Student Large Diameter Centrifuge campaign in the spring or summer of 2010. This campaign will last two weeks, with two teams using the equipment each week.
For “Drop Your Thesis!” students will develop microgravity experiments to be performed in the ZARM Drop Tower Facility, in Bremen. This facility is one of the most sophisticated and high-quality research centres of its kind in Europe and boasts a 146 m high tower that gives experiments up to 9.3 s of microgravity.
Interested student teams are required to submit their proposals by 1 March 2010. The proposals received will be evaluated by a Review Board that will select the winning team. This team will perform its experiment during ESA’s 2nd Student ZARM Drop Tower Campaign, to be held in Bremen for three weeks in the autumn of 2010.
For both programmes, the selected teams will be supported by the ESA Education Office, ZARM or LDC engineers and members of the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA). The ESA Education Office will offer financial support to cover part of the cost of the experiments, travel and accommodation.
Teams from ESA Member States and Cooperating States are encouraged to register on the ESA Education Office's project portal and upload their proposals for the programmes.
All the information pertaining to the two programmes can be found on www.esa.int/education together with information on several other projects and opportunities organised by the ESA Education Office.
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