Y-Space is a research and development project at the Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences in Jena, led by Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Frank Engelmann (Department of Industrial Engineering) in cooperation with the UZH Space Hub at the University of Zurich. The goal of the project is to develop a mobile UAV carrier platform capable of generating true microgravity for biomedical and materials science experiments.
Background: Organoids from Space
At the heart of the scientific application is the cultivation of three-dimensional human tissue structures—known as organoids—from stem cells. Under terrestrial conditions, their growth is only possible with the aid of artificial scaffold structures that support their natural growth but also influence it. In microgravity, however, the cells self-organize into functional 3D structures. Liver, bone, and cartilage tissues have already been successfully cultured in this way.
The fields of application are of great societal relevance: Organoids can serve as a substitute for animal testing in drug development, open up new avenues in transplant medicine, and enable patient-specific therapies in the context of personalized medicine. Furthermore, they provide fundamental insights into how human cells—particularly immune cells, muscle and skeletal cells, and stem cells—respond to altered gravitational conditions. These findings are significant for both human spaceflight and medical research on Earth.
The Established Research Chain and Its Gap
To date, several platforms are available for microgravity-related experiments, each with its own specific advantages and disadvantages.
The clinostat, as a ground-based laboratory, simulates weightlessness through continuous rotation of the sample. The method is cost-effective and location-independent, but does not generate true microgravity. The significance of cellular responses remains limited, as the underlying physical effect is only approximately reproduced.
Parabolic flights, such as those conducted with the Airbus A310 ZERO-G in Dübendorf, provide reliable results for the first time. Under these conditions, stem cells exhibit significantly altered behavior, particularly enhanced 3D growth. However, parabolic flights involve high costs, fixed locations, and long lead times, which significantly limits their availability for academic research.
Suborbital research rockets such as TEXUS or MASER provide about six minutes of true microgravity and enable more in-depth cell analyses, but they involve considerable logistical and financial effort.
Finally, missions to the International Space Station (ISS) allow for experimental periods lasting several weeks. In cooperation with Airbus, approximately 250 stem cell samples have been incubated at an altitude of 400 km over a four-week period since 2020. The basic research has thus been successfully completed, and commercialization is in the works.
However, there is a methodological and infrastructural gap between simple but imprecise ground-based simulations and the first real flight experiment in a parabolic flight. There is a lack of an accessible, cost-effective platform that provides real microgravity within a framework manageable for universities and small research institutions. This is exactly where Y-Space comes in.
The Technical Approach of Y-Space
Y-Space addresses this gap with an unmanned carrier platform based on a UAV. The experiment carrier is detached from the carrier aircraft during a targeted parabolic maneuver. During the free-fall phase, vibrations from the propulsion system are completely eliminated, creating true microgravity conditions for the payload. A dedicated recovery system ensures the safe landing of the experiment carrier.
Performance data achieved to date include approximately five seconds at less than 0.05 g, about eight seconds at less than 0.1 g, and about ten seconds at less than 0.2 g.
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