16 Teams Selected for Next Stage of ESA’s ‘Fly your Thesis!’ Programme

In June 2008, ESA’s Education Office launched a new programme called ‘Fly Your Thesis! – An Astronaut Experience’. This exciting programme offered an opportunity for teams of university students to fly their experiments in microgravity by participating in a series of parabolic flights on an Airbus A300 Zero-G aircraft.

 
After the deadline for applications passed on 31 August, the ESA Education Office set up an Evaluation Board composed of experts from ELGRA (European Low Gravity research Association), the ESA Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration Directorate, and ESA Education. Out of the 29 teams that applied for the next phase of the programme, 16 were selected, involving a total of more than 50 students.

Dr. Javier Ventura-Traveset, Head of the Communication and Education Office of the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) and Chairman of the Evaluation Board explained: “We were really impressed by the very high level of the proposals received and the level of endorsement of the universities. Many European nationalities were represented in the teams and some teams even involved several countries.”

The 16 teams selected include students from the following countries: Germany (14), Italy (10), UK (10), Spain (7), Portugal (4), Norway (2), the Netherlands (2), Greece (2), Sweden (1) and Romania (1).  
 
The selected teams
 
This list summarises the names of the selected teams, their university and the title of their proposed experiment:

• Boiling Jets, University of Pisa, Italy, Gravitational and Electric Force Fields Effects on Boiling Jet Heat Transfer;


• MuSpace, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy, Analysis Of Metabolic And Physical Behaviour Of Engineered Muscles In Gravity-Altered Environments;


• Sma, University of Naples Federico II, Italy, Shape Memory Alloys Adaptive Structure For Satellites Solar Panel;


• Complex, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, The Effect Of Microgravity On Flow Birefringence In Samples Of Sodium Fluorohectorite Dispersed In Water;


• 3G20G, Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, Effect Of Microgravity And Flight-Related Stress On Radiosensitivity;


• Watervrees, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Determination Of The Water Repellency Mechanism For Soil Particles On The Basis Of Electrostatic Surface Forces;


• Acoubu's Team, Politechnic University of Barcelona, Spain, Multi-Bubble Sonoluminiscence in Microgravity;


• The Dust Side Of The Force, Westfälische Wilhelms University Münster, Germany, The GT-Effect, Planet Formation And Dust Storms On Mars;


• Team Kingston, Kingston University, United Kingdom, Chaotic Dripping In Reduced Gravity;


• MEGraMa, University of Bonn, Germany, MEGraMa (Magnetically Excited Granular Matter);


• Resuscitation Working Group, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation In Microgravity: The Effectiveness Of Different Adjunct Devices;


• Space Composite Busters, ESTACA, France - Linköping University, Sweden - Patras University, Greece, Polymeric Composite Processing and Repair;


• BioLEx, The Open University, United Kingdom, Enzyme assay in support of BioLEx Experiment (ESMO);


• ABCtr MicroG, Polytechnic University of Barcelona, Spain, ABC Transporters In Microgravity;


• AstEx, The Open University, United Kingdom, Simulating Asteroidal Regoliths: Implications for Geology and Sample Return;


• Physics_addicted, University of Porto, Portugal, New PDLC Materials Obtained From Dispersion Of LC Under Microgravity.

 
 

	Students working in Zero-G

The selected teams are now expected to write a scientific proposal before the end of November. Teams will be invited to present their project to the Evaluation Board during a dedicated workshop to be held in December. Three or four teams will be selected to further develop and perform their experiment on an ESA Microgravity Research Campaign that will take place in Bordeaux, France, during the autumn of 2009. Some of the other teams may be offered the opportunity to perform their microgravity research at ESA ground-based facilities.

“We are really glad to see that many young scientists in Europe have a strong interest in microgravity research,” said Dr Ventura-Traveset. “This is already a success to us. We would like to congratulate the selected teams and wish them success in the next stage of selection. We would also like to thank all of the applicants for their participation and wish them good luck in their studies and future careers.”

Source: ESA Education

International Space University

I've mentioned the International Space University (ISU) a couple of times in recent posts. Just what is it? Well, the main purpose of ISU is to offer graduate-level education to the future leaders of world space actvities.

It has two main academic activities:

• A one-year Masters in either Space Studies or Space Management (MSS/M) which runs at its Central Campus in Strasbourg in France
• A two-month Summer Studies Programme (SSP) which runs in a different location around the world each year (In 2009 the SSP will be at the NASA Ames Research Centre in California).
  

In both, ISU provides a unique curriculum which covers all aspects of space programmes and enterprises - space science, space engineering, systems engineering, space policy and law, business and management, and space and society. Both also involve an intense Team Project providing international graduate students and young space professionals the opportunity to solve complex problems together by working in an intercultural environment.

Since it was founded in 1987, ISU has graduated more than 2500 students from 96 countries. Together with the ISU Faculty and lecturers from all around the world, this makes a very powerful and effective network. It's been referred to as the 'space mafia' :)

Kingston has a special relationship with ISU - we are one of its Affiliates (the only one in the UK). Amongst other things, this mean that approved Kingston gradates who apply to ISU programmes get a discount on their fees.

ISU is not cheap, it's true, but it's definitely worth it and they will always try to provide financial aid for good applicants, so don't let lack of money put you off applying if you are interested. Kingston has sent more graduates to ISU than any other UK institution - a fact of which we are quite proud!

If you want to apply for aid, then you must submit your application by one of the rolling deadlines: 15 December 2008 (SSP and MSS/M), 31 January 2009 (SSP and MSS/M) and 15 March 2009 (MSS/M only).

If you don't want/need financial aid (lucky you!) the final application dates are is 30 April 2009 for the SSP and 30 June 2009 for the MSS/M.

ESA's plans for the ATV + Hyperbola space blog

Have a look at this 8-minute report about ESA's plans for the evolution of the Automated Transfer Vehicle. Philippe Berthe, EADS Astrium's Head of Advanced Projects who features in it is another person I know through the International Space University - a great institution, IMHO. Whether ESA's plans will come to fruition, we will have to wait and see. A lot will depend on decisions taken next month at the ESA Ministerial meeting.

Incidentally, I found the link to the report on Hyperbola, a very good space blog by UK journalist Rob Coppinger. Rob has put a number of reports from the IAC on his blog as well. Highly recommended.

The Zero-Gravity Coffee Maker: Space Station Luxury or Necessity?

For a lighter hearted, but still serious, in the news item:

Written by Ian O'Neill

Costa Rican engineering students invent a coffee percolator for use in orbit

The secret design will allow astronauts to enjoy the rich taste and aroma of fresh coffee in space (Telegraph)

Imagine: You've just woken up on board the space station half-way through your six-month mission in zero-gravity. You probably feel a little home sick and you crave a drink that will pick up your mood, preparing you for a tough day of overseeing experiments in Kibo and keeping up with your station schedule for the day. You go to the galley for some coffee. Instant, bad tasting coffee at that. You put the instant coffee container into the microwave and heat up the sour, plastic-tasting brew. Did that make you feel any better? Or did it just make you crave the smell of real, freshly ground coffee beans you're used to on Earth?

Franklin Chang-Diaz, a veteran NASA astronaut who spent a lot of time on the International Space Station (ISS), knows all too well the taste of really bad microwaved space coffee. So, in an effort to make life a little better for the current astronauts in orbit, Chang has asked two engineering students to design a machine that can percolate fresh-ground coffee in space…

It may seem like a trivial problem. After all, astronauts on board the ISS are bound to suffer some inconveniences whilst working on space; they are strong, intelligent individuals who understand the sacrifices they need to make to belong to this exclusive group of space pioneers. However, as we spend more time in space, there is an increasing desire for the creature comforts of home, especially if you have to spend six months on board a cramped and (soon-to-be) crowded orbital outpost.

In an effort to confront a personal grievance with his experiences in space, Franklin Chang-Diaz, a seasoned NASA astronaut who has flown on seven Shuttle missions and helped to build the ISS, has approached two students at the Technological Institute of Costa Rica to design and build a coffee machine. But this isn't any ordinary coffee machine, it is a coffee percolator that works in zero-G, dispensing with the need for instant microwaved coffee.

View the Telegraph news report on the "Coffee Infuser" »

So, Daniel Rozen and Josue Solano came up with a solution. The biggest problems faced when wanting to percolate hot water through ground coffee in space are, a) there's no gravity to draw the water through the coffee, b) liquids will float in globules and stick to instrumentation, and c) hot globules of water will create vapour and will probably be quite dangerous (after all, the last thing the ISS crew will need are scalding blobs of water flying around!). Enter the secretive "Coffee Infuser."

The prototype coffee infuser (Telegraph)

"We turn on the switch. The machine will heat the water to 90 degrees centigrade, the ideal temperature for a cup of coffee," Rozen explains. "Once the water reaches that temperature, we direct the water which is found in the heating chamber towards where the container is found, resulting in a delicious cup of coffee."

In an intense environment where crew well-being is critical to mission success or failure, the idea of a space-age coffee infuser seems like a good idea. However, in space, where mass dictates how much a mission costs, the Costa Rican engineers will have to find a way of either making their prototype a lot smaller or integrate it seamlessly into a new piece of kit. Until a smaller version is available I doubt it will be considered to be a critical appliance for the station… (although it would be nice to wake up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee when the Sun is rising over the limb of the Earth…)

Source: Telegraph Online, Universe Today

Astro alum to give talk at KU

Andy Woodcock graduated from Kingston in 2000. Subsequently he has worked for Vega, at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is currently employed by Orbcomm in the USA. Andy will be giving a talk for KUSEDS at 7 pm on the evening of Thursday 23 October in PRJG0002 (Room 2, Galsworthy Building, Penrhyn Road.

EADS Astrium visiting RV on 12 November

There is a careers fair running at Roehampton Vale in Room 125 on Wednesday 12 November from 11am to 3 pm. EADS Astrium will be present and one of their recent graduate employees, Nikki Soper, will be there. I know Nikki through ISU and she tells me that they are looking for some bright people so, if you are in your final year, you might want to go along and impress her!

Soft, Strong and Very Long-Lasting: Space Electric Propulsion

Yours truly is giving the 24th IMechE Aerospace Division AGM lecture on Monday 24 October.

The chemical propulsion systems used to launch rockets and propel and control most spacecraft are familiar to most people. Electric propulsion (EP) is much less well known, using electricity to accelerate a propellant. Although the thrust developed by EP systems is much less than that produced by conventional rocket engines, the exhaust velocity is many times higher. This makes EP potentially very attractive for a wide range of missions from precise positioning of satellites to propelling spacecraft to the outer solar system.

The talk will describe the many EP technologies in use and under development and outline some missions that have applied them and will do so in the future and willstart at 6.00pm, with refreshments available from 5:15pm.

The talk is free to attend and open to all. To book your place, contact Robyn Wyncoll on 020 7973 1304 or email r_wyncoll@imeche.org.

UKSEDS/KUSEDS

As a former chair of UK Students for the Development of Space (UKSEDS), I'm very pleased to see it celebrate its twentieth birthday. There is good article by Mark Bentley here. I remember Mark when he was a fresh young undergrad, keen to make his way in space. Now, he is a well known figure on the UK/European space scene, so prepare for opportunity and join SEDS via its Kingston branch, KUSEDS. Contact Robin Moss (k0604938@kingston.ac.uk) for more details.

The annual UKSEDS conference is at the University of Southampton on the week-end of 22-23 November. This is an excellent place to find out what is going on in space and meet other people, so go sign up now!

Kingston Success with ESA's "Fly your Thesis!" Competition

Yesterday Kingston University's MEng Astronautics project team received notification from the ESA that their entry in the "Fly your Thesis!" competition has successfully progressed through the first phase.  The "Fly your Thesis!" competition will eventually allow up to 4 teams of Masters of PhD students to conduct experiments in a parabolic flight campaign next year.  The team (Carlos Munoz Moya, Hana Rabuzin, Adam Lambert and James Arkwright), with their proposal of investigating a chaotic dripping tap in reduced gravity, beat a large number of other international teams with a high quality of proposals to progress through the first phase of the competition.  

Kingston University's team now make up a core of up to 20 teams that have the chance in December to take part in workshop where they will present their scientific proposal to a panel of ESA judges.  Only 3 to 4 of the remaining 20 teams will be eventually selected to fly their experiment.

Congratulations again, and good luck!  

Westfocus Bright Ideas competition

YOUR Bright Ideas COULD WIN YOU A GRAND PRIZE 

7 PRIZES OF £1000!

20 prizes worth £11,000 to be won plus special healthcare prize! 

1 in 3 entrants won a prize last year.

Put your idea on paper, and compete with your peers. 

Do you have an idea for:

§  a new service or product?

§  a social enterprise or project?

§  a product or service improvement?

Come to workshops to learn how to: 

§  explore and develop your ideas

§  make your CV stand out

§  pitch yourself and your ideas for help and support

Open to all students - no business knowledge needed.

Enter on your own or in a team. Entering is simple. 

To get started go to:

www.westfocus.org.uk/entrepreneurship

Closing date 15th December 2008

IAC#10 - BBC Reports

The BBC have been summarising the congress. The web pages are here.

IAC#9 - Opportunities in Public Spaceflight

The IAC is drawing to a close but there are still many people here. The technical sessions finished at lunchtime, but now there is a plenary in the main auditorium on Future Opportunities for Public Spaceflight. As well as George and Loretta (see ppst below), we have four astronauts in on the panel: Sergei Krikalev (Russia), Chiaki Mukai (Japan), Jean-François Clervoy (Canada) and Yi So-Yean

(Korea). There are aome of very interesting perspectives on what it is like to travel in space and what the likelihood of it is for private citizens in the future.

IAC#8 - The Importance of people

Engineering, science and technology are the obvious focus of the Congress. Equally important, though, are the people. As well as allowing us to find out about the latest developments in astronautics, the IAC is a prime opportunity to engage with and talk to all the different people who make things happen in the space world and to generate new ideas. So, here are a few pictures of some of those people.

Last night after the presentation by Daejeon (the Korean city where IAC2009 will take place) a group of 25 or so decided to go out for a meal. In the group were Loretta Whitesides (founder of Yuri's Night), George Whitesides (Executive Director of the US National Space Society), Julia Tizard (Operations Director for Virgin Galactic), Bill Pomerantz (Director of Space Projects for The X Prize Foundation), Denis Stone (President of World Space Week), as well as Alison, Victoria, myself and a whole bunch of UK space people that I've known since they were undergraduates.

Left to right we see Colin Hicks (former Director-General of the British National Space Centre), Anne Brumfitt (space educator from Australia), Professor Richard Brook(Co-chair of the the committtee who organised the whole congress), Professor Lachlan Thompson (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and Sergei the Space Bear (who has flown into space in a rocket launched from Woomera).

Here are Anne Brumfitt (again!) and Professor Roger Malina. Roger is the son of Frank Malina the first Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has a medal for space education named after him. Anne is the winner this year. Incidentally, Roger says he is the first person to fly marijuana into space!

IAC#7 - Team Kingston

Here are Kingston astro alums Alison Gibbings and Victoria Reid who both now work for the European Space Agency at ESTEC.

Below is a picture of Victoria in the student paper competition. Her presentation was on her final year individual project work about the design of propulsion systems for Martian air-breathing single-stage-to orbit vehicles, which was conducted with Reaction Engines.

IAC#6 - Team Kingston

Here's a "team picture" of happy Kingston staff and students at the IAC yesterday. From left to right: Barnaby, Teejal, Nick, me, and Evgeny. Barnaby was looking especially dapper for his presentation on our plans for a microgravity drop tower.

IAC#5 - Moon first then Mars, says NASA head

As well as the attending the many technical sessions (105 of them!) at the IAC, there are highlight lectures and plenary session where the movers and shakers in space can address all the delegates.

Yesterday, Administrator Mike Griffin emphasised NASA's decision to return to the Moon before sending people to Mars saying that those people who were pushing for the red planet first did not fully understand the challenges associated with a six-to-nine month mission without resupply. He added that without being able to carry out missions of this length on the Moon, sending astronauts to Mars posed a real hazard and would result in them "not coming back."

Do we really know what goes on in space?

I was quoted by The Guardian newspaper last week in an article with the above name, in connection with Chinese launch and associated "propaganda". You can find the article here. The amateur satellite trackers I mentioned (who I would say are very talented, not fairly) are part of an informal international network who watch what is going on in space from the ground. If you would like to find out more about this, take a look at the Visual Satellite Observer's Home Page.