Article Posted on : - Apr 23, 2009

'Zero-G' Airbus A300 for parabolic flights. ESA Photo

PARRIS, (BNS): Students in Europe can experience flights of a lifetime by participating in an exciting programme with the 2010 call for proposal for the “Fly your Thesis! – An Astronaut Experience.”

ESA’s Education Office is inviting university students to fly their experiments in microgravity by involving in a series of parabolic flights on the Airbus A300 Zero-G aircraft, ESA said in a statement.

Each team of students have to design a scientific experiment to be performed in microgravity, as part of their Master's or PhD thesis or research programme which will be reviewed by a board. Around 20 teams will be invited to elaborate a detailed scientific proposal, with the support of a scientific mentor and after an initial work shop the teams will be narrowed down to four.

The selected team will further develop and perform their experiment on an ESA Microgravity Research Campaign that will take place in Bordeaux, France, during the autumn of 2010. There, the student teams will work in close contact with distinguished European scientists carrying out their own research. During the campaign, the students will accompany their experiments on board for three flights of 30 parabolas, experiencing about 20 seconds of microgravity during each parabola.

During the “Fly your Thesis!” project, the participating teams will be supported by ESA's Education Office, ESA microgravity experts and members of the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA), it added.