In February 2026, three new student teams were selected by the ESA Academy Experiments Programme Selection Panel to participate in the current cycle of the programme. Their projects tackle key challenges for future space missions, from understanding fluid behaviour in weightlessness to developing autonomous robotic capture methods and advancing cooperative spacecraft operations. Students will have access to two ESA platforms to carry out their experiments in the coming months.
The ESA Academy Experiments Programme is an educational initiative designed to enhance university students’ learning by giving them the opportunity to design and conduct innovative experiments on various gravity-related platforms and in space. This year, the programme cycle focused on two platforms: Parabolic flights and the Orbital Robotics Lab.
Following the Call for Proposals, ESA received numerous high-quality applications from universities across ESA Member and Associate States. As part of this year’s Experiments Programme selection process, thirteen shortlisted teams for both platforms, Parabolic flights and the Orbital Robotics Lab, were invited in late January to ESA’s ESTEC centre for a workshop covering industry standard engineering practices, project management, risk mitigation, careers at ESA, space business, outreach techniques and more. They also had the chance to spend time with platform experts, take part in hands-on activities and visit several ESTEC facilities, as well as see the PLATO spacecraft currently under development. The workshop concluded with each team presenting their project to the selection panel and responding to their questions, a key step that informed the final decision.
The three projects selected in this highly competitive review tackle key challenges for future space missions.
The CAPYBARA team from AGH University of Kraków in Poland will study how liquids move through finely 3D printed porous structures during weightlessness. By tracking how coloured droplets spread through transparent samples, they aim to identify which geometries enable the most efficient capillary flow, helping future spacecraft use lighter and more reliable passive fluid management systems.
The RobOcto team from the University of Twente in the Netherlands will test an octopus inspired robotic gripper in ESA’s Orbital Robotics Laboratory. Their soft, flexible arms combined with electrostatic magnetic pads are designed to grasp objects of different shapes and materials. The team will assess how well the system captures targets while free-floating, supporting future approaches for safer and more adaptable debris removal and satellite handling.
The STAR BOTS team from the University of Bologna in Italy will explore cooperative control techniques for swarms of small spacecraft analogues. Using a mix of real free-floating platforms and simulated agents in the Orbital Robotics Laboratory, they will investigate how multiple autonomous units can approach, surround and track a drifting target, paving the way for future missions involving debris removal, in orbit inspection or multi spacecraft servicing.
Should these teams have piqued your interest in hands-on space-related projects, and you wish to develop your own student experiment, you can check for current opportunities within the ESA Academy here.
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