A team of 2 PhD students from the University of Glasgow studying mechanical engineering and chemistry, have been selected to develop and conduct their hypergravity experiments. David Firstbrook and Adrienne Macartney (supported by Philip Doherty) will take part in an experiment as part of ESA’s sixth ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ campaign on 7-18 September 2015.

Their goal is to determine the effect of gravity on drilling in granular material. In this experiment the team will study the conditions of ultrasonic vibration required to penetrate granular material with reduced force.

The campaign will take place at the Large Diameter Centrifuge facility located at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Two teams will use the centrifuge equipment during the first week, followed by the other teams during the second week.

Other teams in ESA’s ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ campaign

First published: 12 March 2015

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