Weightless vibrations
Scientists and students last week took part in ESA’s 65th campaign that offers around 20 seconds of weightlessness at each apex of an aircraft’s rollercoaster flight.
This student team from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain, investigated how piezoelectric devices can be used to control fluids in weightlessness.
The minute vibrations over a wide frequency range were used to change the shape of a liquid inside a container.
The hope is that the approach could be used in satellites to feed fuel into engines or water in spacecraft from storage tanks to drinking dispensers instead of mechanical pumps or pressurised systems.
The “Fly your thesis!” programme gives master and PhD candidates an opportunity to work in microgravity conditions. The experiments can be related to fluid physics, chemistry, biology, material sciences, heat transfer and astrophysics.
