UN, ESA to open LDC facility that can mimic up to 20 times Earth's gravity to students

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the United Nations (UN) have decided to open the famous Large Diameter Centrifuge (LDC) hypergravity facility in the Netherlands for budding scientists under the second round of their HyperGES fellowship programme. The Agency hopes the facility will intensify space exploration initiatives, particularly in developing countries. 

The European Space Agency said the hypergravity facility will be opened for student teams around the globe, with those from developing nations being given top priority. Located at the ESA's ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands the LSA can create hypergravity up to 20 times more than Earth's gravity, providing an opportunity to students to perform experiments in a range of gravity conditions. 

How does the hypergravity facility work?

The LDC is a four-arm centrifuge, where each of the arms consists of six gondolas weighing 130 kg and can accommodate a payload of 80 kg at once.

With the payload in position, the centrifuge, which rotates at up to 67 revolutions per minute at its fastest, can then be dialled up to increase the force of gravity. At its highest, it can generate a gravity up to 20 times that of Earth.

What does the LDC do?

As the ESA suggests, the LDC is extremely popular and productive among the life and physical sciences team along with its usage in commercial experiments. Besides, it is also utilised by ESA scientists to study the impact of violent space-launch accelerations on candidate spacecraft materials and components. 

ESA has been inviting students from around the world to submit their applications for its second round of the fellowship programme. The deadline has been set to 28 February 2022. Students preparing for proposals will also be guided by the agency's dedicated webinar series that will provide an overview of the fundamentals, special characteristics, and advantages the hypergravity/microgravity environment has to offer along with giving insights on the types of research, their applications and how to develop experiments for such a unique environment. 

According to the hosts, ESA  by providing access to the LDC facility to every member country of the UN has reaffirmed its commitment as a partner in the Access to Space for All Initiative.

(Image: @PAXI_ESAKIDS/TWITTER)