Call for proposals for sounding rocket and balloon flights
Today the new call for proposals for student experiments to be flown on two REXUS sounding rockets and two BEXUS stratospheric balloons opens. Selected student teams will have the opportunity to design and build an experiment suitable for a flight on the BEXUS 10 and 11 balloons or the REXUS 9 and 10 sounding rockets.
The BEXUS (Balloon-borne Experiments for University Students) 10 and 11 balloons will be launched in September 2010 and the REXUS (Rocket-borne Experiments for University Students) 9 and 10 sounding rockets will be launched in March 2011. All flights will take place from Kiruna in Northern Sweden.
The REXUS/BEXUS programme is realised under a bilateral Agency Agreement between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB). The Swedish share of the payload has been made available to students from other European countries through a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).
EuroLaunch, a cooperation between the Esrange Space Center of the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) of DLR, is responsible for the campaign execution and operations of the launch vehicles. Experts from ESA, SSC and DLR provide technical support to the student teams throughout the project.
Applications
The deadline for applications is 16 November 2009. The flight opportunity is open to students aged between 18 and 28 at the time of the application deadline. Applicants must hold the nationality of an ESA Member State or Cooperating State* and must be enrolled as a full-time undergraduate or PhD student in a university located in an ESA Member State or Cooperating State. Students from Cooperating States are eligible, subject to confirmation of support for their proposal from their delegation.
Applicants must also be studying or researching a subject in a relevant field of science or engineering. N.B. German students should apply to the parallel DLR call for proposals.
The best 12-15 team proposals will be shortlisted for consideration by a selection panel and announced on 18 December 2009.
For more information on the programme and how to apply, please visit www.rexusbexus.net. Here you will also find a detailed campaign overview.
* The 18 ESA Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Canada, Hungary, Poland and Romania participate in some ESA projects under cooperation agreements.
