Drop Your Thesis! 2022 call for proposals

DYT offers Bachelors, Masters and PhD students the opportunity to design, build and test their own experiment at the ZARM Drop Tower in Bremen, Germany. The ZARM Drop Tower is capable of providing approximately 4 to 9 seconds of high quality microgravity for experiments at a much lower cost than other microgravity methods. Furthermore, student teams may also have access to the Gravitower providing short duration access to gravity levels between 10^-6g and 1g.

The selected student experiment can cover topics ranging from chemistry, biology, physics or even be a technical demonstration. ESA Academy thus encourages applications of students from a diverse range of academic fields, such as sciences, physics, and engineering.

The ZARM Drop Tower is one of the tallest and best-known drop tower facilities in Europe, with an imposing height of 146 m. The tower is surrounded by supporting integration halls, control rooms, laboratories, and workshops. A 120 m high steel tube is inside the tower from which the air is evacuated before each flight. The near vacuum conditions inside the tower thus allows for experiments to experience microgravity levels close to 10^-6g. 

Previous DYT participation included Team Bubbles, from the International Space University, Strasbourg. The team successful recreated sonoluminescence, a flash of light generated by the collapse of a bubble of air suspended in a flask of liquid, under microgravity conditions. The team leader shares his feedback “It was a transformative experience, very challenging but reinforced university education and I now feel able to go further into becoming a scientist. We would encourage any other students considering it to take the plunge and gain invaluable experience!”.

DYT provides students the experience of working as part of a professional project environment. The programme allows students to build their CVs and professional network, encouraging positive introductory experiences to careers in Europe’s space industry. 

“The Drop Your Thesis! programme offers a full package experience for the student teams. Tasks such as financial budgeting, risk assessments, experiment automation, communication with stakeholders and reporting, all equip the students with critical knowledge on how to manage a project at all levels for their impending careers,” says Nigel Savage, programme coordinator for DYT. 

ESA Academy is looking to sponsor teams of four or more university students from eligible states. Students applying to this call should adopt ESA’s principles on diversity and equal opportunities into account when forming their teams, as well as the eligibility requirements. More details on how to apply can be found here.

The schedule of Drop Your Thesis! 2022 can be found at this page. ZARM and ESA Academy experts will work closely with the selected teams in order to develop the experiments in time and carry out the campaign in late 2022.

For further information, please contact dropyourthesis @ esa.int.