United NationsOffice for Outer Space Affairs

StELIUM team with their drop tower capsule. Credit: Álvaro Romero-Calvo

"The UNOOSA DropTES 2019 program gave us the opportunity to study what, at the time, still was an unexplored physical phenomenon with promising space applications. Our international team, StELIUM, succeeded in developing a complex microgravity experiment and obtaining unprecedented data on the sloshing of ferrofluids in microgravity, gaining some invaluable real-life experience. As discussed in our publications, this has proven to be critical for the development of low-gravity magnetic positive positioning devices. Antonio, Francesco, Inés, Filippo, and I are extremely grateful to everyone who made this possible." - Álvaro Romero-Calvo, StELIUM team leader.

AWARDS

Mission e-patches awarded to Politecnico di Milano.

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DropTES

Politecnico di Milano was the winner of the 6th round of DropTES opportunities in 2019.
The team proposed to analyse the lateral sloshing of a ferrofluid solution in low-gravity with the aim of measuring its oscillation frequency while subjected to different magnetic field intensities. This result can be used to validate recently developed magnetic sloshing models, which would prepare the path for the design of magnetic sloshing dampers and other liquid management devices in reduced gravity environment.

About DropTES

News

• A student team from DAER wins the UNOOSA DropTES fellowship (April 2019)

Activities

• StELIUM team member gives a lecture at International Space University Space Studies Program, Granada, Spain (August 2021)
• StELIUM team member speaks at UNOOSA Webinars on Hypergravity/Microgravity Research (27 May 2021)
• StELIUM team member speaks at 43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly (January 2021)
• Celebration results of the international student competitions (16 December 2020)
• StELIUM team member speaks at UNOOSA Access to Space for All Initiative, "DropTES: Master the Microgravity Path" (8 December 2020)
• StELIUM team member attends Space Development Nexus (SDNx) Online Global Space Summit 2020 (September 2020)
• DropTES experiment campaign (2019)

Publications

• Álvaro Romero-Calvo,  Antonio J. García-Salcedo,  Francesco Garrone,  Inés Rivoalen, and  Filippo Maggi,  Lateral and Axisymmetric Ferrofluid Oscillations in a Cylindrical Tank in Microgravity,  AIAA Journal   0   0 : 0 ,  1-6,11 Feb 2022, https://doi.org/10.2514/1.J061351
• Á. Romero-Calvo, F. Garrone, A.J. García-Salcedo, I. Rivoalen, G. Cano-Gómez, E. Castro-Hernández, F. Maggi, Free surface reconstruction of opaque liquids in microgravity. Part 2: Drop tower campaign, Acta Astronautica, Volume 189, 2021, Pages 269-277, ISSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.07.020.
• Á. Romero-Calvo, A.J. García-Salcedo, F. Garrone, I. Rivoalen, G. Cano-Gómez, E. Castro-Hernández, F. Maggi, Free surface reconstruction of opaque liquids in microgravity, Part 1: Design and on-ground testing, Acta Astronautica, Volume 189, 2021, Pages 250-259, ISSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.08.029.
• Á. Romero-Calvo, A.J. García-Salcedo, F. Garrone, I. Rivoalen, G. Cano-Gómez, E. Castro-Hernández, M.Á. Herrada Gutiérrez, F. Maggi,
  StELIUM: A student experiment to investigate the sloshing of magnetic liquids in microgravity, Acta Astronautica, Volume 173, 2020, Pages 344-355, ISSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.04.013.
• Á. Romero-Calvo et al., "Free and forced oscillations of magnetic liquids under low-gravity conditions", Journal of Applied Mechanics 82(2), 2020.
• Á. Romero-Calvo et al., "Lateral sloshing of magnetic liquids in microgravity", Proceedings of the 70th International Astronautical Congress, Washington DC, US, 2019.
• Á. Romero-Calvo et al., "Free surface reconstruction of opaque liquids for experimental sloshing analyses in microgravity", Proceedings of the 70th International Astronautical Congress, Washington DC, US, 2019.