Fly Your Thesis! 2022 call for proposals

The Fly Your Thesis! (FYT) programme is a once in a lifetime opportunity for students to propose, design, build, test and fly their experiment on board a parabolic flight. During the Parabolic Flight Campaign, operated by Novespace in Bordeaux, France, student teams are able to participate in three flights with 31 parabolas per flight. As one parabola contains approximately 22 seconds of microgravity, the teams experience over 10 minutes of microgravity per flight and can thus benefit from over 30 minutes of microgravity in total to achieve their scientific objectives. 

To be eligible for the FYT! programme, your team must consist of at least 4 master or PhD students enrolled at a university within an ESA Member State, Canada, Slovenia or Lithuania. Diversity and equal representation should be a key focus when building the experiment team. It is important that the submitted proposal describes how the team composition is optimised to best achieve the experiment objectives indicating that skills and competences are balanced appropriately.

Teams will be required to submit an accurately completed Experiment Proposal (EP) document detailing their experiment, the need for microgravity conditions, the connection to their master or PhD study and how the team would cope with team member turnover. Although not part of the selection criterion, we ask the teams to see how their experiment objectives align with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the ESA Strategic Goals. ESA will select a number of teams to qualify for the next round of the selection process based on the quality of the team’s proposal.

The shortlisted teams will be given a week to complete a first draft of their Experiment Safety Data Package (ESDP); a technical document required from all teams that participate in the FYT! Parabolic Flight Campaign. This will then be followed by an invitation to attend a selection workshop to present their experiment proposals to a Review Board composed of ESA Academy, ESA Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate representatives, Novespace staff and members of the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA). After this workshop, the Review Board will select the teams that will be offered the chance to fly on the next parabolic flight campaign tentatively scheduled for October/November 2022!

FYT! gives students the experience of working in a professional project environment, allows them to build their CVs and their professional network and hence fosters a good start to careers in the space industry. 

The selected teams will be supported in their preparations by ESA Academy, ESA and Novespace microgravity experts. The teams might also be offered an additional mentor of the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) to further help them in their development. ESA Academy will provide some financial support in order to cover parts of travel and accommodation.

Want to know how to become a part of FYT! 2022? Click here for information on how to apply, eligibility requirements, rules and regulations. Eligible teams should submit an accurately completed application pack before the deadline on October 3, 2021 23:59 CET. The important dates for this new edition can be found on 2022 Schedule.

For further information please contact us at FlyYourThesis @ esa.int.