List of documents
The following documents are important for the programme. All the applicants are strongly encouraged to consult these documents and to refer to them while preparing their applications.
1. Experiment proposal form, ESA
This document must be completed and submitted as the main document in the application process.
2. Privacy notice, ESA
This document is to be read, understood, and the ratified version is submitted during the application process.
3. European User Guide to Low-Gravity Platforms, ESA
This guide provides an overview of the four low gravity platforms sponsored by ESA. The guide including details of how these platforms are made available to people wishing to use them for either scientific, educational, or commercial purposes. The drop tower is detailed in chapter 4 of the guide.
4. ZARM Drop Tower, User Manual, ZARM FAB
This is a detailed manual describing the facilities; Safety requirements, integration of an experiment; and the mechanical, electrical, and control interfaces with the experiment capsule. The teams must read and understand this document in detail before they begin designing the experiment.
The experiment will only be integrated into the capsule if it meets all conditions specified in the user manual. Only if the experiment meets all of the requirements within this User Manual will it be allowed to be performed in the ZARM Drop Tower.
5. Gravitower, User Manual, ZARM FAB
The Gravitower user manual is in preparation. If the students require information about this facility, they can contact dropyourthesis @ esa.int.
6. Terms and Conditions for Participation in ESA Drop Tower Campaigns, ESA
This document is issued to address the terms and conditions applicable to anyone participating in a Drop Your Thesis campaign. The acceptance of the terms and conditions is mandatory to participate in a campaign and a prerequisite condition to conduct of preparatory ground activities, and drop operations. All student members of the team are required to read and sign this document.
7. ERASMUS Experiment Archive, ESA
An abstract of most ESA-sponsored experiment that has been performed on a microgravity platform can be found in this database. This resource may be of great help when it comes to defining the team’s project.
This document summarize the experiment for the ERASMUS database. The selected teams of DYT campaign must submit a draft of this document before the campaign takes place, and then the completed version submitted to ESA’s Education Office at the same time of the Experiment Report.
8. Experiment report template, ESA
For the selected teams, this document serves as a reference document through the preparation and the execution of the experiment, as well as the final report once the experiment campaign is completed. The selected student teams develop this document as the project progresses. Teams are required to re-submit the experiment report at specified deadlines to ESA engineers and the ESA’s Education Office to provide guidance and feedback to the team. The feedback is iterated upon with the team and ESA to grow their experimental plan before the experimental campaign. After the campaign the results and conclusions are added to the report template and the final version is submitted to the ESA Education Office.
9. ESA road map
This document lists some of ESA’s main objectives in science and technology for the foreseeable future, read through the entire document to see if your experiment aligns with some of these goals also.
Please note that the information detailed above is subject to change without prior notice.
