Gravity-related experiments training week comes to an end

From 16 to 19 January, students at ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Centre had the unique opportunity to dive head first into the details of what lies ahead of them in the upcoming year. Experts from each of the gravity-related research facilities came to discuss the specifics of their experiments, and impart their knowledge to the students. 

For the Fly Your Thesis! programme, 6 teams, each represented by two students, discussed their scientific intentions aboard Novespace’s A310 with safety engineers and ESA’s Education experts. For this cycle of the Fly Your Thesis! programme, the research topics covered by the student teams are extremely varied. Topics include three types of human biomedical research projects, CubeSat attitude control, docking mechanisms, and deployable materials.  “This training week has been a great experience providing us with the opportunity to learn how to build, plan, and successfully manage a research project,  which is very different to what we are used to. We’re taking home new conceptual and operational tools for our career as researchers,” said a SaMBA team student from the University of Turin.

For the Drop Your Thesis! programme, 2 teams consulted with ZARM engineers who explained the various capabilities of the state-of-the-art Drop Tower at the  Bremen facility. Thorben Koenemann from ZARM stated, “It was a very productive training week for all of us- for the student teams as well as the experts ”. This year, one team will be investigating the behaviour of ferromagnetic fluids in microgravity, whilst the other will test the concept of  graphene-based solar sails.

The Spin Your Thesis! programme had 2 teams come to Redu to speak to the ESA experts who operate the facilities at ESA/ESTEC in the Netherlands. One team wishes to investigate how eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells’ viscosity is altered in hypergravity, while the other team wishes to investigate the efficiency of metallic foam phase change material in varying g loads. “What an amazing training week! We found the workshops on project management and outreach particularly useful, and the lectures from experts were extremely interesting”, said a team member from Imperial College belonging to Team Twistosity .

All teams began the week by receiving introductory lectures from ESA’s Education staff about ESA and ESA’s Education activities in particular. Several workshop activities were also spread throughout the 4 day training and covered topics such as project and risk management, outreach, systems engineering, and experiment automation methods.

To intermittently relieve the fast pace of the training, lectures on gravity-related research in physical and life sciences and human physiology were given. An inspirational talk about ESA Director General’s view on a Moon Village by ESA Senior Scientist Bernard Foing was also well received.

The students heard about ESA’s activities, research, and vision for Europe’s place in space, as well as specific dedicated information that they will carry with them throughout the development of their experiments.

“The training week at ESA’s Redu Centre gave us an excellent head start on our Drop your Thesis! project. The various workshops were a big help, and the discussions with the experts of the ZARM Drop Tower were incredibly valuable. It has been a pleasure,” said a Ferros Team member who will develop an experiment for the ZARM Drop Tower in Bremen.

For more information about ESA’s Education opportunities for university students, regularly visit the ESA Academy page, or sign up to receive email updates about our programme calls. Fly Your Thesis! Drop Your Thesis! and Spin Your Thesis! calls for 2018 will be released in Spring 2017.