Student Experiments launched on BEXUS 26 and 27
Last week 50 students from around Europe descended onto the Esrange Space Centre in Arctic Sweden to launch the culmination of a year’s hard work to the edge of space!
These future space scientists and engineers are participating in the 11thcycle of the REXUS/BEXUS programme, specifically the launch campaign for BEXUS 26 and 27 – both stratospheric balloons.
The students have been working on their experiments for over one year, and have undertaken a rigorous series of reviews and testing at campaign. The weather at the start of the campaign was uninviting, offering low visibility and poor launching conditions, however as integrated testing was completed the clouds began to clear and it became possible to launch.
At 02:00 local time on the 17thof October the countdown for BEXUS 26 was started, and three teams of enthusiastic students watched the launch and their ground stations with anticipation as, 5 ¾ hours later at 0744, their experiments began their ascent to the upper atmosphere. BEXUS 26, and it’s three passengers, reached a float altitude of 27kmafter around 1.5 hours, and travelled across Sweden into Finland before the flight was terminated after around 3 hours.
It wasn’t long before BEXUS 27 was on the tail of her sister balloon, with a successful lift off at 0842on the following day, reaching a maximum altitude of 27.7km and a total flight time of just over 4 hours.
BEXUS 26 hosted two experiments sponsored by The Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA) and the ESA Education Office:
- The TUBULAR Experiment Alternative AirCore Atmospheric Trace Gas Sampling) from the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden
- OSCAR Q-LITE (Optical Sensors based on CARbon materials: Quantum Lightweight ITEration) from Hasselt University in Belgium.
A third experiment (IMUFUSION) was also on-board and was sponsored by DLR.
BEXUS 27 also hosted another two experiments sponsored SNSA/ESA:
- LODESTAR (high aLtitude experiment On cosmic raDiation inducEd defectS in CIGS solar cells wiTh high precision meAsuRements) from Uppsala University in Sweden
- LUSTRO (Light and Ultraviolet Strato-and-Tropospheric Radiation Observer) from Warsaw University of Technology, in Poland.
Along with another two DLR sponsored payloads (WHB and QUEST).
Following their flight both payloads were retrieved by helicopter and then truck back to Esrange, where eager students were able to retrieve their data and analyse the results of their hard work!
The LUSTRO team and team TUBULAR described their experience on the campaign and programme:
“The REXUS/BEXUS programme is a great opportunity for student teams, to build and launch their experiments! The whole process of idea, design, manufacturing and launch taught us how to manage project in the future. The Launch Campaign is perfect to understand what are the results of your decisions during the whole programme. And this is one of the most memorable events in one’s life!” (team LUSTRO)
"The amount we have learnt during REXUS/BEXUS has been crazy! Getting the chance to work on a project like this was invaluable. Overall we would say it was totally TUBULAR!" (team TUBULAR)
