Agency Increased number of opportunities for experiments in microgravity 20/11/2015 1763 views 9 likes

Due to the success of the Drop Your Thesis! programme over the past 7 years, ESA's Education Office is happy to announce that next year’s campaign will double the number of University teams.

The Drop Tower facilities include state of the art amenities and the highest quality microgravity available on Earth, albeit for a short period of time. Indeed the g levels regularly reduce to 10-6g, surpassing the quality observed on the International Space Station. A comprehensive experience During the Drop Your Thesis! programme, students not only have access to state-of-the-art research facilities, they also receive valuable feedback from ESA, ZARM and European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) experts. The programme enables participants to develop important practical skills through hands-on activities, as well as learn about project management, problem solving, development, and testing of hardware and software. In the video below, the latest team to have been given access to the facilities talk about their project and experience.

Dropping Drops team at Drop Your Thesis! 2015



As a direct consequence of the research they conducted during the Drop Your Thesis! campaigns, many students have been able to present their results at international conferences and/or publish papers in leading scientific journals. Drop Your Thesis! also provides opportunities to meet experts and work with them. The experience gained is an important addition to students’ curriculum vitae, and increases their chance of being elected for future professional opportunities. Straightforward application process This new opportunity for the next DYT! campaign is open until 17 December 2015. To find out how to apply see the links on the right of this page, paying particular attention to eligibility rules. For inspiration and previous experiments performed in the Drop Tower platform, please see the Previous Experiments and Erasmus Experiment Archive (EEA) links to the right of this page.