2022 ELGRA Biennal Symposium

The 2022 ELGRA Biennial Symposium and General Assembly was held on September 6-9, 2022, in Lisbon, Portugal.

New Managment Committee

A new Management Committee of ELGRA was elected during the 27th ELGRA General Assembly, Oct. 13, 2021 (online). The new MC is:

President: Philip Carvil

Vice President: Ricard González-Cinca

Secretary: Elisa R. Ferré

Treasurer: Thorben Könemann (re-elected)

Members:

Eric Falcon (re-elected)
Christian Lockowandt
Anna Garcia Sabaté (new member)

 

Online 2021 ELGRA General Assembly

Wednesday October 13th, 3PM CET, 2021

Agenda:

1. Introduction to the session.

2. Approval of last General Assembly minutes.

3. President’s report: presentation and approval.

4. Treasurer’s report: presentation and approval.

5. Auditors report.

6. New Statutes: presentation and approval.

7. Presentation of coming activities.

8. Membership fees.

9. Election of two auditors.

10. New Management Committee: presentation of candidates and voting.

11. AOB

Please register to the General Assembly by sending an email to administration@elgra.org before October 3rd, 2021. A Zoom link will be sent to the registered persons after this date. A minimum of 20 members is required to have a quorum.

During the General Assembly, elections will be held for the renewal of the Management Committee. All the ELGRA members can apply to be part of the Management Committee. Those wishing to apply should send their candidacy (specifying for which position: President, Vice-President, Secretary General, Member) and CV to president@elgra.org by October 5th.

Best wishes,

Ricard González-Cinca

ELGRA President

Dear ELGRA members,
 
At the end of last year we sent you a Save the date! message (see below) for the 2021 ELGRA Biennial Symposium and General Assembly to be held this September in Lisbon.
 
Unfortunately, the current health situation in Europe and the lack of short-term foreseeable improvements, makes the possibility to carry out the symposium in safe conditions uncertain. Therefore, the ELGRA Management Committee has decided to postpone the ELGRA Symposium to 2022. As soon as the situation gets noticeably better and stable, we will inform you about new dates and venue.

 

According to our Statutes, the General Assembly shall be convened at least once every two years where the new Management Committee also has to be elected. Therefore, the next General Assembly will take place online October 13th, 2021 at 15 pm (CET). Two-months notice of the virtual meeting date for the General Assembly will be given.
 
Best wishes,
 
Ricard González-Cinca
ELGRA President

ELGRA goes suborbital! call

ELGRA offers an opportunity to house your experiment onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket by submitting a proposal to the ELGRA goes suborbital! (2nd edition) call.

New Shepard launches from Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas and offers approximately 3 minutes of high-quality microgravity for your experiment.

To be eligible to submit a proposal, the team leader (main applicant) must be a regular ELGRA member, and the team must include at least one SELGRA member.

Applications with multiple ELGRA members are considered an advantage. The application should have a maximum of 10 pages and include:

– Name and affiliation of team members.

– Short CV of the team leader (max. 1 page).

– Scientific objectives of the experiment.

– Description of the experimental setup and procedure.

The best proposal among the ones received will be selected for the suborbital flight. The two main selection criteria will be the science case and the feasibility to perform the experiment within the given constraints. Therefore, the description and your motivation for performing the experiment in microgravity as well as a technical description of how the experiment is expected to perform are important. 

The selected proposal will benefit from: 

– One suborbital flight of the experiment according to the flight specifications (see below).

ELGRA can consider to fund the purchase of equipment or other costs related to the payload construction up to 1500€ provided it is justified in the application.

Flight specifications:

Envelop: 100x200x200 mm (including box/structure, to be provided by user) (4x8x8 inches)

Mass:  < 1 kg (up to 2.2 lbs. total mass)

Microgravity time: approx. 3 minutes

Microgravity level: < 0.01 g

On-board electrical power: Up to two (2) connectors, each with 5 V at 0.9 A via USB 2.0/3.0

On-board data feed: Up to two (2) connectors, each with basic mission state data via USB 2.0/3.0

Payloads may contain up to 100 mL of approved non-hazardous liquids –or- small approved batteries without fluids.

Payloads cannot contain significant hazards (e.g. biohazards, hazardous chemicals, stored energy, etc.).

Research team must create its own hardware according to NRFF Payload User’s Guide (PUG) specifications.

Download:

ELGRA goes suborbital! call (2nd edition) (pdf – 0.5Mo)

New Shepard Payload Users Guide (pdf – 4 Mo)

Schedule:

30 January 2021: Deadline for submitting proposals to communication@elgra.org

15 March 2021: Announcement of selected proposal.

3 months before launch: Payload data package complete.

2 weeks before launch: Reception of experiment at Blue Origin.

Launch window will be coordinated with the winner. Launch will take place not earlier than 12 months after selection.

Submit your proposal and have the chance to take your research to space and back experiencing microgravity!

Best wishes,

The ELGRA Management Committee                                                                      December 9, 2020

A new Management Committee of ELGRA was elected during the ELGRA General Assembly in the 26th ELGRA Symposium, Sept. 26, 2019, in Granada (Spain). The new MC is:

President: Ricard González-Cinca (re-elected)

Vice President: Philip Carvil (re-elected)

Secretary: Christian Lockowandt (re-elected)

Treasurer: Thorben Könemann (new member)

Members:

Marcel Egli (re-elected)
Eric Falcon (re-elected)
Elisa Ferré (new member)

More information