Benefits of ESA Gravity-Related Hands-on Programmes for University Students’ Careers

Natacha Callens,Piero Galeone,Lily Ha

doi:10.1007/s12217-016-9505-x

Natacha Callens, Piero Galeone + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-016-9505-x

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Abstract

AbstractThe Education Office of the European Space Agency (ESA) offers university students, from ESA Member and Cooperating States, the opportunity to perform investigations in physical sciences, life sciences, and technology, under different gravity conditions through three educational programmes. The “Fly Your Thesis!” (FYT) programme makes use of parabolic flights and the “Drop Your Thesis!” (DYT) programme utilizes a drop tower as microgravity carriers, while the “Spin Your Thesis!” (SYT) programme uses a large centrifuge to create hypergravity. To date, more than hundred university students had the chance to participate in the design, development, and performance of one or more experiments during dedicated campaigns. In the following paper, we examine demographics of past participants of the ESA Education Office gravity-related opportunities over the past seven years and evaluate the benefits of these educational programmes for the participants’ studies and careers. Student teams that participated in one of the programmes between 2009 and 2013 were contacted to fill in a questionnaire. The feedback from the students demonstrate significant benefits extending far beyond the primary educational objectives of these programmes.

Highlights

The ESA1 Education Office was created in 1998 with the purpose of motivating young people from European Space Agency (ESA) Member and Cooperating States to study science, engineering, mathematics, and technology subjects, and to ensure a better qualified workforce for ESA and the European space sector in the future
Around 56 % of the experiments were in the field of physical sciences, 39 % in life sciences and 5 % in technology
These campaigns involved 130 university students from 42 teams coming from 39 different universities across Europe and Canada

Summary

Introduction

The ESA1 Education Office was created in 1998 with the purpose of motivating young people from ESA Member and Cooperating States to study science, engineering, mathematics, and technology subjects, and to ensure a better qualified workforce for ESA and the European space sector in the future. The ESA Education Office supports several activities that provide university students with opportunities for practical experience and transfer of knowledge through direct interaction with space professionals. Through the ESA Education Office hands-on programme opportunities, university students can develop instruments and platforms for microsatellites (Bruzzi et al 2014), participate in the full cycle of the development of a pico-satellite (Galeone et al 2014) and in its operations, or develop and operate sub-orbital and stratospheric flight experiments on sounding rockets and high altitude balloons (Callens et al 2013). Students can conduct research experiments using microgravity and hypergravity carriers. (FYT) programme features parabolic flights aboard the A310 ZeroG aircraft, operated by Novespace (Pletser and Harrod 2014), from Bordeaux-Merignac in France, the Drop Your Thesis!

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