The students have earned a place on board the sounding rocket which the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch into space from Kiruna in Sweden in March 2015, and where they will be able to assemble their "space heat pipe" in order to test it in absence of gravity. The team, made up of students and teachers from the University of Pisa – in collaboration with the University of Bergamo – have been chosen by ESA to take part in the REXUS/BEXUS Programme (Rocket and Balloon Experiments for University Students). Their main aim is to build an innovative type of Heat Pipe capable of functioning in reduced gravity conditions. The delivery of the experiment will be in December. The device to be tested will reach a height of 100 km before returning to Earth.
The PHOS Project (Pulsating Heat Pipe Only for Space) will give the students a chance to participate in the design, management and operative phases of a real space mission: "The device, which will be tested in two different forms, is called PHP, which stands for Pulsating Heat Pipe, a type of heat pipe which works through a pulsating mechanism" explains Gian Marco Guidi, one of the team members. "The main characteristic of the PHP is the simple and inexpensive design which makes it highly cost effective. During the experiment, thermal power will be administered in one section of the device and removed in another. This procedure will help to establish various functional parameters in absence of gravity. This data will then be compared with the data collected from other experiments carried out on the ground."
The teams chosen by ESA will meet in Kiruna in March for the "PDR", the Preliminary Design Review, where the experts from all the organizations taking part will evaluate the "preliminary design". The team from the University of Pisa is the only Italian team to have been chosen by ESA in the "Rocket" category of the Education section which each year offers students from throughout the European Union the possibility to take part in the REXUS/BEXUS project.
The members of the Pisa team, aided by the Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction (DESTEC), are all students from the Engineering courses: Gian Marco Guidi, Federico Belfi, Giorgiomaria Cicero, Francesco Creatini, Giulia Orlandini, Nicolò Morganti, Stefano Piacquadio, Simone Fontanesi, Michele Rognini, Alessandro Frigerio and Pietro Nannipieri. The professors taking part in the project are Sauro Filippeschi, Paolo di Marco and Luca Fanucci from the University of Pisa and Marco Marengo from the University of Bergamo. The students will also be flanked by Mauro Mameli and Miriam Manzoni from the University of Bergamo.
The team are also looking for students who can help in other areas such as marketing and communications. In particular, help is needed in web indexing and content managing within the website and social networks. Anyone who is interested should apply to Gian Marco Guidi (Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.).
For further information or to help sustain the PHOS project please access the following websites:
Website: www.phosproject.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectphos
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phos_team
Watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hOTd9qiHAQ