The United States Rocket Academy’s Citizens in Space project has selected a series of experiments that will be sent onboard the first research mission of XCOR Aerospace Lynx spacecraft.

The experiments cover various subjects from microgravity crystallisation to plant growth, and antimicrobial materials for space habitats, and the interaction of water with lunar surface materials.

Citizens in Space chief payload officer Dr Justin Karl said: "Citizens in Space is making these flight opportunities available at no cost to citizen scientists.

"Our goal is to create a huge catalogue of flight-proven experiments that future researchers can draw from."

"In return, citizen scientists pledge to make their experiment designs and data openly available to the entire community.

"Our goal is to create a huge catalogue of flight-proven experiments that future researchers can draw from."

Selected projects include Angelicvm Aerospace Foundation’s crystallisation rates in microgravity, Bishop Planetarium’s microgravity water electrolysis optimisation, effectiveness of anti-microbial coatings in microgravity conditions by CD-SEAS, and Florida International University of Miami’s regolith compression mechanics in reduced and micro-gravity.

Experiments also cover Flightsafety Makers’ characterisation of local inertial loading and comparison with avionics data, NewSpace Farm’s microgravity botany pod hardware evaluation, as well as Texas Southern University of Houston’s non-fick diffusion in microgravity.

These tests will be lifted-off aboard the Lynx Cub payload carrier, an open-source carrier for the Lynx spacecraft.

A science-mission-specialist astronaut for Citizens in Space will oversee the experiments in-flight.