Winners of the Barcelona Zero-G Challenge 2024 successfully fly their microgravity experiment

The team ‘GRABE’, a group of Filipino students who won the Barcelona Zero-G Challenge, successfully conducted their experiment in a parabolic flight at Sabadell Airport (Barcelona). The name of the team comes from a Filipino exclamatory expression meaning ‘out of the ordinary,’ highlighting the unique experiences they have had throughout this challenge.

The Barcelona Zero-G Challenge is an international student competition coordinated by Antoni Pérez-Poch, a professor and researcher at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC) in the School of Engineering of Barcelona East (EEBE), and a member of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya). The initiative is supported by the AeroClub Barcelona-Sabadell, and this edition also had the collaboration of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space in the Philippines (SEDS-Philippines). The goal of this challenge is to promote aerospace research among young people, fostering new careers in this field and awakening interest in STEAM studies (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics).

GRABE’s experiment investigated the behaviour in microgravity of shear-thickening fluids (STFs), a type of non-Newtonian fluid that increases its viscosity upon impact. By simulating a free fall of bones encapsulated in STF, the team sought to determine whether the absence of gravity affects the protective properties of this fluid, which are essential for applications such as flexible armor and vibration dampers in aerospace. 

The team consists of Danielle Baldono (Ateneo de Manila University), Michelle Dote (National University), Leonardo Florenz Eugenio (De La Salle University), and Juan Migelle Ferido (De La Salle University), and was mentored by Isabela Huckabee (Cornell University, USA) and Florence Pauline Basubas (Universitat Pompeu Fabra). Over the course of three months, they developed their experiment under the remote supervision of Professor Antoni Pérez-Poch and pilot Daniel Ventura González-Alonso from the AeroClub Barcelona-Sabadell. Once in Barcelona, they assembled their experimental setup under the supervision of Professor David González Díez at the UPC Space Exploration Lab in the School of Industrial, Aerospace, and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa (ESEIAAT), and later visited the Computer Science and Microgravity Lab at the EEBE.

Caption: GRABE team with professors and mentors who have accompanied them in their project.
Credits: UPC.