Ariane 6 launches: PariSat, physics in space after school

Europe’s newest rocket soon launches, taking with it many space missions each with a unique objective, destination and team at home, cheering them on. Whether into Earth orbit to look back and study Earth, peer out to deep space or test important new technologies, Ariane 6’s first flight will showcase the versatility and flexibility of this impressive, heavy-lift launcher. Read on for all about the PariSat mission, then see who else is flying first.

The goal of PariSat’s project is simple: what materials work best to get rid of heat in space? But for this project flying on Europe’s new rocket Ariane 6, finding the answer is less important than the journey itself.

Based in a single-story building near the Georges Carpentier stadium in Paris’s 13th district, France, the amateur space club GAREF AEROSPATIAL gather regularly after school to talk, work and be inspired by space – and design satellites. Aged between 15 and 25 years old these young adults have built the PariSat experiment flying on Ariane 6 on their own, during their free time.

Metal radiators
Eight square plates just 4 cm wide are being tested to see how they function as space radiators. The plates were chosen to test a wide variety of properties such as the material itself, its colour, and how they react to being heated and cooled as they fly through space on the Ariane 6 upper stage for just under three hours. A temperature sensor attached to each plate will have its data beamed back to ground control to analyse to provide real-life readings of “black-body radiation”.

The experiment is allowing the club to test and verify the Stefan-Boltzmann law of thermal radiation that was discovered in 1884 and models how an object absorbs and radiates heat.

A worthy heritage

PariSat is not GAREF AEROSPATIAL’s first project to leave Earth’s clutches of gravity – since the club was founded in 1964 it has already flown eight experiments into space and this will be their fifth launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

This experiment is the first that was completely developed and built within their clubhouse in Paris. From the initial design to the mechanics, the electronics and software all the way down to the soldering of the materials, everything was made by members of GAREF AEROSPATIAL after school.

PariSat will remain attached to Ariane 6’s upper stage. The upper stage has a mission of its own to launch multiple satellites and even two reentry capsules. PariSat will be piggybacking on this and gather data as its orbit is raised and adjusted by the unique Vinci engine that can be restarted multiple times on a single Ariane 6 launch.

The data that PariSat will beam to Earth will be received by Swedish Space Corporation’s telemetry Kiruna station in Sweden.