In the ‘Überflieger 2’ competition, students were invited to submit proposals for experiments to be conducted on the International Space Station ISS in 2023 between 23 August and 15 October 2021. What makes the competition special is that the student teams not only provide the ideas for their experiments, but also design, build and test them themselves. The experiments could come from any field of study, but had to make use of the special environment of the ISS – such as microgravity or space radiation – for their implementation. A further condition was to fit the experiment hardware into a prefabricated container measuring 10 x 10 x 20 centimetres and for it to run autonomously, i.e. without the intervention of astronauts. Students from universities in Germany and Luxembourg were able to apply.
Experiment container of the 'Überflieger 2' competition
The containers for the students' experiments are 10 x 10 x 20 centimetres in size. They are installed in the laboratory on the International Space Station ISS and are reusable.
The winners were selected from all entries in a two-stage process. In the first stage, a jury of experts selected the eight best German and the four best proposals from Luxembourg from all the entries.
These teams were able to present their experimental ideas in detail at a selection workshop and answer questions from the panel of experts. At the end of the workshop, the three best German teams and the best Luxembourg team were selected by the jury and were able to realise their experimental ideas.
The winning teams witnessed the rocket launch
Students from the 'Überflieger 2' teams at the German Space Agency at DLR
Representatives from all four 'Überflieger 2' teams travelled to Bonn for the final meeting on 29 June 2023. Up to 27 students per team were involved in the realisation of the experiments. Students from the universities in Luxembourg (BRAINS experiment), Hanover (Glücksklee experiment), Stuttgart (FARGO experiment) and Munich (ADDONISS experiment) took part in the competition.
The winning teams received financial support and technical advice for the construction of their experiments. In March 2023, the four winning experiments were then transported to the ISS on a cargo flight and operated there for more than 30 days. As a further highlight, the winning teams were given the opportunity to witness the rocket launch with their experiment on board at the launch site.
'Überflieger 2' is supported by the German Physical Society (DPG). The technical implementation partner is the company yuri GmbH from Meckenbeuren in Baden-Württemberg. The German part of 'Überflieger 2' is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
The first Überflieger competition took place in 2017. The winners were the student experiments EXCISS (University of Frankfurt) and ARISE (University of Duisburg-Essen), which focussed on the formation of planets, and the PAPELL experiment (University of Stuttgart) on the development of a new pump technology. The experiments were carried out during the ISS mission of German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in 2018.
