ESA Parabolic Flights,Drop Tower and Centrifuge Opportunities for University Students

“Fly Your Thesis!—An Astronaut Experience” is an educational programme launched by the ESA Education Office that aims to offer to European students the unique opportunity to design, build, and eventually fly, a scientific experiment as part of their Master or Ph.D. thesis. Selected teams accompany their experiments onboard the Zero-G aircraft for a series of three flights, each consisting of 30 parabolas, with each parabola providing about 20 s of microgravity. ESA Education Office financially supports the flights and part of the hardware development, as well as travel and accommodation for participants. For the first edition of this programme, four student teams were selected to participate in the 51st ESA Microgravity Research Campaign in November 2009. The 2010 edition of the programme was launched in April 2009 and the final selection was announced in January 2010. In parallel, ESA Education Office is setting up two new hands-on activities to provide European university students with access to drop tower (up to 9.3 s of microgravity) and centrifuge (from 1 to 20 times Earth’s gravity) facilities. Through ELGRA, the selected student teams are working in close contact with renowned European scientists working in gravity-related research. This paper will introduce the three new educational programmes and present the selected experiments, as well as give information to students interested in the future editions.     

The First Joint European Partial-G Parabolic Flight Campaign at Moon and Mars Gravity Levels for Science and Exploration

Aircraft parabolic flights provide repetitively short periods of reduced gravity and are used to conduct scientific and technology microgravity investigations, to test instrumentation prior to space flights and to train astronauts before a space mission. Since 1997, ESA, CNES and DLR use the Airbus A300 ZERO-G, currently the largest airplane in the world for this type of experimental research flight. This mean is managed by the French company Novespace. Since 2010, Novespace offers the possibility of flying reduced gravity levels equivalent to those on the Moon and Mars achieved repetitively for periods of more than 20?s. ESA, CNES and DLR issued an international call for experiments inviting European Scientists to submit experiment proposals to be conducted at these partial gravity levels. The scientific objectives are on one hand to obtain results at intermediate levels of gravity (between 0 and 1?g) allowing a better study of the influence of gravity, and on the other hand to give them some elements to prepare for research and exploration during space flights and future planetary exploration missions. ESA, CNES and DLR jointly organised in June 2011 the first Joint European Partial-G Parabolic Flight campaign with 13 experiments selected among 42 received proposals. Parabolas were flown during three flights providing micro-, Moon and Mars gravity levels with duration typically of 20?s, 25?s and 32?s with a mixed complement of investigations in physical and life sciences and in technology. The paper presents the approach taken to organise this campaign and the 13 selected experiments with some preliminary results are presented to show the interest of this unique research tool for microgravity and partial gravity investigations.     

First Experiments Aiming for Precise Lamb Shift Measurements on Hydrogen-Like Heavy Ions with Low Temperature Calorimeters

The precise determination of the Lamb shift in hydrogen-like heavy ions provides a sensitive test of quantum electrodynamics in very strong Coulomb fields, not accessible otherwise. To increase the accuracy of the Lamb shift measurement on stored heavy ions at the ESR storage ring at GSI, a calorimetric low temperature detector for hard X-rays was developed. A prototype array consisting of 8 pixels with silicon thermistors and Sn or Pb absorbers was applied in first experiments with stored ²³⁸U⁹¹⁺ and ²⁰⁷Pb⁸¹⁺ ions interacting with an internal gas-jet target. In both experiments the Lyman-α lines were, for the first time by using calorimetric low temperature detectors, clearly identified in clean, almost background-free spectra. A total detection efficiency of 1×10⁻⁷ for the Lyman-α lines was reached and an energy resolution of 115 eV was obtained under the present experimental conditions, which corresponds to a considerable improvement of about half an order of magnitude if compared to conventional Ge semiconductor detectors. Finally preliminary results of the data analysis and future perspectives are discussed.      

Acoustic Resonator Experiments at the Triple Point of Water: First Results for the Boltzmann Constant and Remaining Challenges

We report on two sets of isothermal acoustic measurements made with argon close to the triple point of water using a 50 mm radius, thin-walled, diamond-turned quasisphere. Our two isotherms yielded values for the Boltzmann constant, k _B, which differ by 0.9 parts in 10⁶, and have an average value of k _B = (1.380 649 6 ± 0.000 004 3) × 10⁻²³J · K⁻¹. The relative uncertainty is 3.1 parts in 10⁶, and the average value is 0.58 parts in 10⁶ below the 2006 CODATA value (Mohr et al. Rev Mod Phys 80:633, 2008), and so the values are consistent within their combined (k = 1) uncertainties.     

Progressive development of water resources in the Middle East for sustainable water supply in a period of climate change

The history of the Middle East has been influenced by past global climatic changes. Warm periods caused droughts, resulting in desertification, migration and war. Cold periods were humid and brought prosperity and agricultural settlement to the desert fringes. The forecast based on this correlation is that the present global warming will cause the drying up of the Middle East. As in the past, this negative impact should be mitigated by using the groundwater resources stored from past wetter times. This will involve deep drilling, pumping and modern irrigation methods within the framework of a new policy of 'progressive development', which will entail the use of currently undeveloped natural water resources beyond that of present water replenishment. While the use of the one-time groundwater reserves is taking place, a master long-term comprehensive progressive development plan for the Middle East will be prepared. This plan will include the step-by-step development of other water resources such as treated effluents, desalinated brackish groundwater and desalination of seawater.