United Nations Fellowship Program “Drop Tower Experiment Series” (DropTES)—Hands-on Experience in Microgravity Research

Abstract

In order to foster the technical and management skills of young students from different educational institutions, it is essential to provide them with as many hands-on experiences as possible. These tasks include, among others, creating technical drawings, programming, developing and performing experiments, and acquiring project management skills. Such practical training is not only important for the students’ professional career, but also in their day-to-day life. This chapter introduces the United Nations Fellowship Program “Drop Tower Experiment Series” (DropTES). DropTES forms part of the Human Space Technology Initiative (HSTI) of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). The Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) in Bremen, Germany hosts the fellowship program on behalf of UNOOSA with the support of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Space Administration. Together all three institutions bring this annual fellowship program to life, opening it to student teams from research entities located in Member States of the United Nations. The DropTES Fellowship Program invites heads of research institutions or groups, university professors and postdoctoral researchers to promote the program amongst their respective students. The selected student team gets to conduct their own scientific or technological experiment under short-term conditions of weightlessness at the Bremen Drop Tower, ZARM’s microgravity research facility. Each research team can consist of up to four Bachelor, Master and/or Ph.D. students, who must be endorsed by their academic supervisor (team leader–Prof./Ph.D.). Each year, the announcement of opportunity for DropTES is posted between September of the current year until the end of January of the following year on the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) website. Completed application forms are accepted by UNOOSA within this time-frame. The drop tower experiment series for the selected research team is scheduled each November and consists of four sponsored drops or catapult launches during one week at the Bremen Drop Tower. Each experiment series is accompanied by an on-site experiment integration, which takes place one week prior to the series week. During the entire experiment preparation and realization phase, the student team is technically assisted by experts from ZARM. A travel subsidy and on-site accommodation are guaranteed for the entire research team. The DropTES Fellowship Program is designed to contribute to the global promotion of space education and microgravity research, particularly to enhance relevant capacity-building activities in developing countries. All information required to participate in DropTES can be found on the fellowship program website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (DropTES—Website—http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/psa/hsti/capacity-building/droptes.html). Currently, applications for the sixth cycle of DropTES (2018–2019) are open for submission. The following sections will provide an overview of all the DropTES cycles between 2013 and 2018 along with a description of the main characteristics of the Bremen Drop Tower.

Dr. Thorben Könemann—with contributions by UNOOSA, DLR Space Administration, and DropTES Research Teams.