Newsmaker:

The four are Wanaruk Chaimayo and Tanapat Deesuwan from the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science, Mahidol University; Sitthipong Manotham of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University; and Pisit Kietkittikul of the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University.

The four were given the opportunity after their project, "A Study of Water Flow by Heating Under Micro-Gravity Conditions", won the 2nd Thailand Zero-Gravity/Micro-Gravity Experiment Contest held by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) and the National Science Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) Thailand.

Their project triumphed over four other submitted works to win the competition, the goal of which is to encourage Thai students to create a pilot project to test in Japanese aerospace programmes.

The winning project aims at giving a better understanding of the behaviour of liquids under microgravity conditions. This could lead to further applications, such as in the cooling systems of some experimental apparatus used in space stations.

A micro-gravity flight occurs when an aircraft flies in a parabolic arc at twice the speed of earth's gravity (2G). Then the aircraft free falls until the speed reaches zero gravity.

Passengers become temporarily weightless for about 20 seconds.

In Japan, Wanaruk, Tanapat, Sitthipong, and Pisit will have the opportunity to experience a micro-gravity flight up to 15 times per day.

The Thailand Zero-Gravity/Micro-Gravity Experiment Contest is an annual competition. For further information, visit: www.tmc.nstda.or.th/ or www.tmc.nstda.or.th/jaxa.