Friday, October 31, 2025

SPACE/COSMOS

Aerospace Team Graz wins European Championship title in rocket construction

The student team, comprising members from Graz University of Technology, the University of Graz and FH Joanneum, impressed at the European Rocketry Challenge in Portugal with their ISPIDA hybrid rocket, confidently securing overall victory

Graz University of Technology

image:
The successful Aerospace Team Graz.
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Credit: ASTG

At the sixth edition of the European Rocketry Challenge in Constância (Portugal), the Graz University of Technology-based student team Aerospace Team Graz once again claimed overall victory and thus the European championship title in rocket construction, following their triumph in 2023. With its ISPIDA rocket, named after a kingfisher subspecies, the team scored 938 out of 1000 possible points, winning by a margin of over 220 points ahead of the team from the University of Stuttgart in second place. Third place went to the team from the Polytechnic University of Milan. A total of 24 teams competed.

The scoring was divided into four categories: technical documentation (200 points), rocket design (250), team performance (200) and flight performance (350). In the flight evaluation, the Aerospace Team Graz competed with ISPIDA in class H9, which includes rockets with hybrid propulsion and a planned flight altitude of nine kilometres. The Graz team's rocket propulsion system uses nitrous oxide as a liquid oxidiser and HTPB as a solid fuel. During its flight, which went according to plan, ISPIDA reached an altitude of 9,366 metres, securing the Flight Award in class H9.

Almost a year of preparation

‘Our team consists of around 90 members, and I would like to thank each and every one of them for their strong performance this year,’ says Manuel Maurer, President of Aerospace Team Graz. " Preparing for the European Rocketry Challenge takes almost a year. During this time, we develop the rocket's concept and design, and work with sponsors to manufacture and test the systems. We mastered all these challenges with flying colours. In Portugal, we were able to take off with complete confidence in our system. The fact that we were able to prevail so clearly against strong competition demonstrates the great expertise and commitment of the entire team."

One of the strengths of the Aerospace Team Graz is its interdisciplinary collaboration. The team comprises 15 different fields of study, including mechanical and electrical engineering, physics, and computer science. Management, marketing, media production, public relations and sponsorship are also integral to the team.

To the Aerospace Team Graz website

The trophies for overall victory and the H9 Flight Award.

The ISPIDA rocket during launch preparations.

The successful flight of ISPIDA.

ISPIDA on its way to the launch pad.

Credit

ASTG

New image captures spooky bat signal in the sky

ESO

The RCW 94/95 nebulae in visible and infrared light — image:
This image shows a cloud of gas and dust, shaped like a cosmic bat. The image was obtained mostly in visible light with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The intense red glow comes from hydrogen atoms ionised by the intense radiation of young stars within the cloud. The image also includes additional infrared data captured by ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), also at Paranal.
The most prominent clouds here are RCW 94, which represents the right wing of the bat, and RCW 95, which forms the body, while the other parts of the bat have no official designation.
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Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team/VVV team

A spooky bat has been spotted flying over the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile, right in time for Halloween. Thanks to its wide field of view, the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) was able to capture this large cloud of cosmic gas and dust, whose mesmerising appearance resembles the silhouette of a bat.

Located about 10 000 light-years away, this ‘cosmic bat’ is flying between the southern constellations of Circinus and Norma. Spanning an area of the sky equivalent to four full Moons, it looks as if it's trying to hunt the glowing spot above it for food.

This nebula is a stellar nursery, a vast cloud of gas and dust from which stars are born. The infant stars within it release enough energy to excite hydrogen atoms around them, making them glow with the intense shade of red seen in this eye-catching image. The dark filaments in the nebula look like the skeleton of our space bat. These structures are colder and denser accumulations of gas than their surroundings, with dust grains that block the visible light from stars behind.

Named after a large catalogue of bright star-forming regions in the southern sky, the most prominent clouds here are RCW 94, which represents the right wing of the bat, and RCW 95, which forms the body, while the other parts of the bat have no official designation.

This stunning stellar nursery was captured with the VST, a telescope owned and operated by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and hosted at the ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The VST has the perfect capabilities to capture these large spooky creatures. Onboard it is OmegaCAM, a state-of-the-art 268-megapixel camera, which enables the VST to image vast areas of the sky.

This image was pieced together by combining observations through different filters, transparent to different colours or wavelengths of light. Most of the bat’s shape, including the red glow, was captured in visible light as part of the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+). Additional infrared data add a splash of colour in the densest parts of the nebula, and were obtained with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey. Both surveys are open to everyone who wants to dive deep in this endless pool of cosmic photographs. Dare to look closer, and let your curiosity be haunted by the wonders that await in the dark. Happy Halloween!

More information

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal, ESO will host and operate the south array of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.

Muscle tissue from a 3D printer – produced in zero gravity

Breakthrough in space biomanufacturing: muscle tissue 3D-printed in microgravity to advance human health for space travel

ETH Zurich

3D printing muscle tissue in zero gravity — image:
*To produce muscle tissue under the most precise conditions possible, the research team led by Dr. Parth Chansoria used parabolic flights to simulate the microgravity of space.*
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Credit: ETH Zurich / Wiley Online Library

On their way into space, astronauts' bodies deteriorate dramatically in zero gravity. To address this problem and protect our pioneers in space, researchers are looking for realistic test models.

This is precisely where the research of a team at ETH Zurich comes in. To produce muscle tissue under the most precise conditions possible, the research team led by Parth Chansoria used parabolic flights to simulate the microgravity of space for a short period of time. This technical feat brings the researchers closer to their long-term goal: growing human tissue in orbit to study diseases and develop new therapies.

Why manufacture in zero gravity?

The production of fine, biological structures such as muscle tissue poses a major challenge under normal gravitational conditions on Earth. The goal is to print tissue that looks exactly like the natural structures in the body. However, gravity interferes with the process.

For 3D printing, researchers use a special substance called bio-ink. This consists of a carrier material mixed with living cells. The weight of the bio-ink and the embedded cells can cause the structures to collapse or deform before the material can harden. In addition, the cells can sink unevenly in the bio-ink. This leads to less realistic models.

Under microgravity, these disruptive forces disappear. Without structural stress, researchers can produce muscle fibers exactly as they are aligned in the body. This precise construction is crucial: only models that accurately reflect the human body structure provide reliable results when testing new drugs or studying disease progression.

A new gravity-independent system

To this end, the ETH researchers developed a new biofabrication system called G-FLight (Gravity-independent Filamented Light). This system enables the rapid production of viable muscle constructs within seconds.

Using a special bio-resin formulation, the team performed 3D printing during the weightless phases of 30 parabolic cycles. The results showed that the tissue printed in microgravity had similar cell viability and a similar number of muscle fibers than the tissue printed under gravity. In addition, the developed process enables long-term storage of the cell-loaded bio-resins, which is ideal for future applications in space.

Disease models beyond earth

The successful production of muscle constructs in microgravity represents an important advance for tissue engineering in space research and biomedicine. The aim is to use these techniques to produce complex human organoids and tissues on board the International Space Station or future orbital platforms. In space, researchers can conduct basic research thanks to these ‘organ models’: They are used to study diseases such as muscular dystrophy or muscle atrophy caused by weightlessness. In addition, they can be used to test the effectiveness of therapeutics in a system that better reflects the complexity of the human body – because 3D printing in weightlessness allows muscle fibers to be aligned with such precision and accuracy.

Journal

Advanced Science

DOI

10.1002/advs.202512727

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Lab-produced tissue samples

Article Title

Prolonged Cell Encapsulation and Gravity-independent Filamented Light Biofabrication of Muscle Constructs

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