Fly a Rocket! students launch own research rocket
In brief
From 19 to 23 August 2024, 24 students participating in the Fly a Rocket! programme travelled to Andøya Space in Northern Norway to launch their own research rocket.
In-depth
The Fly a Rocket! programme, developed in a partnership between the ESA Education Office, Andøya Space Education and the Norwegian Space Agency, is aimed at bachelor-level students early in their studies.
100 students representing 25 ESA member states have been selected to participate in the online course of the programme, where they learned about rocket dynamics, atmospheric physics, soldering, telemetry, and fundamentals of rocket flight simulations, among other topics.
After the online course, 24 students traveled to Andøya Space to participate in a hands-on rocket launch campaign.
At the campaign, students were divided into four different working sections. The "Flight Simulation" section focused on assembling IMU and GPS sensors and conducting trajectory simulations, providing vital data for the mission. The "Telemetry" section set up and operated the telemetry stations, ensuring real-time data reception during the flight. The "Payload" section integrated and tested the sensors within the rocket; while the "Sensor Experiments" section prepared and calibrated the sensors, including weather balloon probes.
The students were also responsible for scientific work during the campaign. Unlike ordinary rocket campaigns, the scientific goal of the student rocket was not set in advance and the students needed to coordinate among them to define scientific cases they wanted to investigate with the sensors available.
Launch finally took place on 22 August. Students had the chance to actively take part in the countdown procedure. They took over different ground stations during launch operations while being seated next to experts from Andøya Space who guided them through the process if necessary. After a countdown of about one hour, the student rocket lifted off and reached an altitude of 9372 meters before splashing down in the Norwegian Sea. Sensors on board gathered valuable atmospheric data all along the flight, which was transmitted to ground.
The last day of the campaign was then dedicated to the analysis of the received data and a preliminary presentation of results. Following the launch campaign, the students will work together to prepare a final report of their findings.
Congratulations to all students and organisers!