Welcome to the home of AstEx, a parabolic flight experiment selected through the European Space Agency (ESA) student competition "Fly your Thesis". The full experiment, entitled 'Simulating Asteroidal Regoliths: Implications for Geology and Sample Return', flew as part of ESA's 51st Microgravity Research Campaign in November 2009.
The AstEx experiment was developed by two postgraduate students; Ben Rozitis and Naomi Murdoch. They are based at The Open University's Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute (PSSRI) in the UK and The Côte d'Azur Observatory in Nice, France. Thomas Louis de Lophem, a mechanical engineer currently studying for a second degree in Physics at The Open University, also played a large role in the experiment development.
For more information about our team, the AstEx Experiment and the science please follow the links on the left.