The First Student Micro-Gravity Flight Experiment Contest, a project initiated by the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) aims to find one research project at university level from Thailand to join in Jaxa's zero-gravity experiment project.

Sawat Tantiphanwadi, the deputy director of the Technology Management Centre at NSTDA, said this collaboration would be an opportunity for Thai university students to make advanced experiments utilising Jaxa's facilities.

Jaxa operates an aircraft flying a parabolic manoeuvre, and every year it allows university students in Japan to submit their research projects. Only the most outstanding are selected to conduct experiments in weightless environments on the aircraft.

As zero-gravity cannot be found in normal earth environments, but only in space, Jaxa has simulated weightless environments inside an aircraft. During a two-hour parabolic flight, approximately 20 seconds of zero-gravity will occur around 8 to 15 times and this is a key period for conducting experiments. This is done by flying the aircraft high and then having it nose dive, which helps generate something akin to the weightlessness of space. The phenomenon is called microgravity.

Sawat said conducting zero-gravity experiments in parabolic flight would help the agency create understanding and interest in the advantages of space environments as a foundation for the country's students to conduct further advanced research.

Under the collaboration, he said that the agency would select the best research proposal to participate in Jaxa's parabolic flight project. With no more than three students per team, the winning team will join zero-gravity experiments in Japan. Only one representative will actually be on board the parabolic flight aircraft.

The agency is open for proposals until August 21 and it plans to make a final announcement of the teams in September. The winning team will fly to Japan early next year.

Since the experiment must be done within 20 seconds, Sawat suggested the project should be something that can give a quick experimental result.

Examples of research projects include an analysis of frost patterns in micro-gravity environments, a behaviour analysis of droplets in wires with a temperature gradient by observing the wicking phenomenon, and a behaviour analysis of intra-tubular fluids using capillarity in micro-gravity.

Meanwhile, the NSTDA is also working with Jaxa to arrange for Thai scientific experimental projects to be done in the Japanese experiment module on the International Space Station, a permanent research laboratory in space, orbiting 400 kilometres above the Earth.

The module, called Kibo, is Japan's first manned facility where astronauts can conduct various experiments using space-specific features such as zero gravity, high vacuum, strong radiation, and infinite solar energy.

It's expected that Kibo will be launched and put on the station by 2008.

He said the collaboration would offer Thai researchers advanced facilities for their projects. The agency has invited local researchers to submit their proposals and it will select projects to be done on Kibo's lab.

Potential projects that can utilise Kibo's facilities involve growing rice in a space environment, tissue culture, and the study of the growth of bacteria in zero-gravity environments for antibiotic production, for example.

The agency is in the early stages of receiving proposals. However, if projects are selected, Sawat said the agency would have to spend another three to four years to develop experiment kits that fit the space environment.

It hopes Thai experiments will be conducted in space by 2010.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation