Glasgow students will see the final results of their projects launched into orbit.

The students were commissioned by the European Space Agency, along with two colleagues from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, to construct a space-web to be launched onboard a rocket in March 2010.

The web is a flexible structure made from an ultra-light, ultra-strong polymer fibre.

It is hoped the space-web can act a lightweight platform for the construction of large structures in space without the costs of launching heavy materials from Earth.

After deployment the web will be kept rigid using the centrifugal forces experienced by spinning the web structure.

The team of PhD students who will construct the space-web include Christopher Murray, from Scotland, specialising in mathematics & physics; Yi Chen, from China, control engineering; Norilmi Ismail, Malaysia, mechanical engineering; Christy Maddock, Canada, telecommunications; Malcolm McRobb & Andrew Mathieson, Scotland, mechanical engineering.

The students have only one year to prepare for its launch from Esrange in northern Sweden.

Mr Murray said in a statement: "This is certainly a great opportunity for all of us.  We will have 30 seconds to deploy and stabilise the web so we need to make sure it works first time as there can be no second chance. If we are successful it will give us the greenlight to develop our work further.

"We are confident that we can make this work and meet the tight deadline and I think we put that across to the panel when the selections were made. We're giving it everything we've got."

The team will have the support of Matthew Cartmell, professor of mechanical engineering at Glasgow University and the UK's leading authority on space tethers along with Dr Max Vasile, also from the university who is a highly experienced space systems engineer.