EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY: Spin your thesis!

ESA is offering European students a rare opportunity to conduct hypergravity experiments, with a call for proposals for the third ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ campaign, which will take place in 2012.

The Spin Your Thesis! programme enables university students to carry out experiments in hypergravity, using the Large Diameter Centrifuge in the agency’s Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. 
 
The centrifuge subjects samples to accelerations 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. In practice, six gondolas are available, plus one in the centre for control experiments.

The centrifuge is flexible in terms of experiment scenarios, duration and possible equipment. It allows experiments lasting anything from one minute to six months. 

Spin Your Thesis! calls for 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.

Teams from ESA Member States and Cooperating States are encouraged to register on the ESA Education Office's project portal and upload their proposals by 12 December 2011.

A review board will select up to four teams to develop and perform their experiment during the third ESA Spin Your Thesis! campaign, to be held in ESTEC during September-October 2012. This campaign will last two weeks, with up to two teams using the centrifuge equipment each week.

During the Spin Your Thesis! project, the teams will be supported by ESA's Education Office, hypergravity experts from ESA 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.

Please see www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education/SEM43VZRA0G_0.html for further information.

MS