The Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) invites university students to apply to the new programme called “PETRI” now offered by ESA Academy. The acronym reflects the nature of the programme as it offers “Practical Education in Technology, Research and Innovation”.

The programme enhances on previous hands-on opportunities for students by offering free training, coaching and consultation prior to submitting an experiment proposal. In practical terms, it means that students and prospective teams may sign up with no obligations to a series of webinar sessions that provide the necessary background information on various topics pertinent to doing experiments and technology research in altered gravity platforms with ESA. Armed with the necessary knowledge, teams can then submit a strong proposal for an experiment idea on a platform of their choice: ISS, parabolic flight, drop tower or, on the other end of the gravity spectrum, in a large diameter centrifuge.

As space exploration and commercialisation activities grow from year to year and access to space becomes easier for students, ESA Academy is adapting its approach to the increased demand in trainings and practical opportunities.

You can check the PETRI schedule for 2022-2023 here.

The programme concept can be divided into 4 sections. PETRI offers prospective students and teams the option to participate in a series of information webinars to help them decide on how best to approach their project idea.

The information webinars are followed by a month-long period of consultation between prospective student teams and ESA Academy. Throughout this period, interested teams should be assembling their experiment proposal using the template provided. Students will have a deadline to submit the proposal template alongside a video ‘elevator pitch’ of the experiment. Selected teams will continue in the programme and meet with their appointed engineers within a week of selection thus marking the official project kick-off.

More details here.

Image credit: ESA