The GraviTE project developed by students from the AGH Space Systems Scientific Club has become one of the three best student space ventures in the Direction: Space competition, according to the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow.

The top three projects in the competition included: HematopoiesisISS carried out by students from the Medical University of Silesia and Jagiellonian University, and L(aser) A(mplitude) S(timulated) P(lant) A(griculture) – LASPA from the Warsaw University of Technology.

This success will provide the opportunity for further development of the project and the chance to send it to the International Space Station. The prizes were presented to the young researchers by Dr Slawosz Uznański, Polish project astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) and initiator of the competition.

GraviTE (Gravity-free Tissue Engineering) aims to study the behaviour of stem cells embedded on polymer scaffolds in microgravity and to compare the results to microgravity simulated on Earth. The project was prepared by the Balloon and Rocket Experiments Section of AGH Space Systems.