Hypergravity opportunities for University Students

The European Space Agency is proud to announce the second edition of the ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ programme. Through this programme, several teams of university students will be given the opportunity to carry out experiments in hypergravity.

Selected students will carry out their experiment using 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.

‘Spin Your Thesis!’ invites each team of students to design a scientific or technology experiment that requires hypergravity for a few hours or days, as part of their syllabus. The deadline to submit the experiment proposals is 10 December 2010.

A review board will select four teams to develop and perform their experiment during ESA’s second Student Large Diameter Centrifuge campaign in June 2011. This campaign will last two weeks, with two teams using the equipment each week.

During the ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ project, the teams will be supported by ESA’s Education Office, ESA hypergravity experts and members of the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA). ESA 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 proposal.

So we thought you might give us a little help in the promotion of this programme, since I guess you still have loads of contacts and friends busy at studying. Would you mind spreading the word and let potentially interested students/professors know about it?

All the information can be found on the website of ESA Education: www.esa.int/education together with information about many other projects and opportunities organised by ESA Education Office. For any further information, please do no hesitate to contact us through the e-mail address below.

I thank you very much in advance.

Best regards,

Dr Javier Ventura-Traveset Head of ESAC Communication and Education Office
spinyourthesis@esa.int