Figure 4 - uploaded by Andreas Stamminger
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
![Figure 1. REXUS-4 two-stage unguided solid propellant sounding rocket [9]](profile/Andreas-Stamminger/publication/225020131/figure/fig3/AS:667589156020245@1536177066872/REXUS-4-two-stage-unguided-solid-propellant-sounding-rocket-9_Q320.jpg)
On the 22nd of October 2008 EuroLaunch launched the REXUS-4 rocket at Esrange in Northern Sweden. EuroLaunch is a joint venture of the DLR Mobile Rocket Base and the SSC Esrange Space Center. The REXUS-4 payload was comprised of five technological experiments from German and Swedish Universities. The REXUS-4 mission was also the maiden flight of a...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... REXUS-4 payload comprised of five university experiments and one DLR Mobile Rocket Base experiment in an extra module. During the ballistic flight the MIRIAM experiment of the Universität der Bundeswehr München and the Mars Society Germany was separated from the main payload to test a balloon system that will be used for the entry of a probe in the Martian atmosphere in the future. Several cameras on the REXUS-4 payload as well as cameras and telemetry on the MIRIAM flight system monitored the separation and inflation during the ballistic flight phase. The VERTICAL experiment from the Technische Universität München verified the startup procedures of the CubeSat MOVE and its solar panel deployment under real spaceflight conditions. The HISPICO experiment of the Technische Universität Berlin tested a high- integrated S-Band transmitter. The REWICAS of the Technical University of Luleå consisted of three cameras. The EMSADA experiment from the same university is a multiple sensor and data acquisition unit [9]. The MIRIAM Experiment (Main Inflated Reentry Into the Atmosphere Mission test for ARCHIMEDES) is placed under the nosecone. It was the spaceflight test for the ARCHIMEDES project. ARCHIMEDES is an effort to probe the atmosphere of planet Mars by means of a hypersonic drag balloon, a device known as a “ballute” (a term coined by the Goodyear Corporation in 1959 by combining the terms “balloon” and “parachute”). The project is currently under study, proposed and supported by the Mars Society Germany, the Universität der Bundeswehr München, the AMSAT-DL e.V. organization and several other research institutions and industrial companies. The most important step in the development of ARCHIMEDES so far was the spaceflight test MIRIAM. MIRIAM was to test the deployment mechanism, the inflation process, the ballute behaviour during inflation and the high speed entry into the atmosphere on a ballistic trajectory. This is important to validate trajectory- and CFD analyses [4]. The spaceflight system consisted of 3 major elements: - The MIRIAM ballute spacecraft which comprises an instrumented pod and the helium-filled hypersonic drag balloon (ballute). As stated above, MRIAM’s pod instrumentation already closely resembled that of ARCHIMEDES, but purely for flight analysis purposes. The FMI- provided ATMOS-B pressure sensor was installed inside the balloon. The magnetometer for MIRIAM (MiriMag) was contributed by the IGEP institute and MAGSON. Paired with an optical still image camera it provided attitude information. The still image camera though is a commercially available low resolution unit which can be integrated cheaply and easily and is sufficient for an occasional attitude fix in combination with the other sensors. A suite of two different sets of accelerometers built by the ARCHIMEDES team and universities in Iasi and Pitesti, Romania gave deceleration and roll rate information. The Miriam Ballute was 4m in diameter and made of UPILEX 25 RN. The ballute had 32 segments which were bonded with a high-temperature high strength UPILEX-RN tape specially manufactured to MIRIAM mission specifications by Lohmann Tapes of Neuwied. - The Service Module (SM, see Figure 4) contained the inflation system, structural box, release mechanism, a telemetry and a life television subsystem. It also contained a set of cold gas thrusters. These thrusters were used to pull the Service Module away from MIRIAM after inflation. - The Camera Module which remained attached to the rocket. It documented the release and operation of the SM/Miriam system, as well as providing the structural interface between the MIRIAM flight system stack and the REXUS payload section. The camera module also contained the release mechanism for the Service Module / Miriam combined system. All three elements combined formed the MIRIAM Flight System Stack (see Figure 3). Due to strong cost requirements in the development of MIRIAM’s structure, special emphasis had to be put on commercially available and reliable components which are suitable for use in a zero-g and vacuum environment. All components have to also withstand the loads occurring during the launch and the ascent on top of a ballistic rocket. The Helium gas was stored in three CFRP pressure tanks at 200 bars (see Figure 4). These tanks are carbon- fibre wound low cost tanks normally used for paintball games. It was found that these components fulfil the MIRIAM requirements very well. To reduce the piping between the tanks and the valves, most of the piping was integrated into the base plate of the inflation systems deck. This plate is divided horizontally into two parts and the plumbing is milled directly into the aluminium plates. Sealing is done by conventional O- rings. Tests have shown that leakage is not a problem. The valves were connected directly to the channels in the base plate via special adapters with integrated gas channels. The only pipes necessary are those for connecting the channels with the thrust nozzles. One more is used to connect the main inflation control valve (ICV) to the central expansion chamber assembly. Due to weight and volume limitations, no conventional pressure regulator could be used. Two chambers of expansion volumes together with specially designed throttles and an inflation control valve (ICV) were used instead. The ICV was a high pressure injector valve and is controlled dynamically at a high frequency, thereby controlling the inflation hose pressure through pulse width modulation. The Instrument Pod was directly attached to the ballute. It consisted of a hexagonal shaped thin-walled container, completely milled out of aluminium. It contained all the sensors, camera, transmitter and computer as well as the batteries of the ballute spacecraft. It was located mainly inside the balloon. The ballute envelope thin film was clamped between the container and the circular cover. This cover had the same curvature as the ballute itself to give the spacecraft a perfectly spherical shape. All communication between the Instrument Pod and the Camera Module (CM) was done via an infra-red link through the camera window. The folded ballute spacecraft was held down inside the spring-loaded deployment container by a clamp ring. MIRIAM unfortunately did not meet all of its mission goals after one of the three main interlock bolts failed to properly separate the spacecraft from the rocket. As a result the MIRIAM ballute spacecraft was not fully deployed. However, the deployment and inflation control systems functioned as planned, as well as the observation platform, validating the method and yielding important data and experience based upon which an improved system can be designed. The next step in the development of ARCHIMEDES would therefore be the flight test of an improved version of MIRIAM. Based on the architecture of MIRIAM, its successor would feature not only a different separation mechanism, but also an improved ballute, an improved spacecraft bus and an improved observation system. However, funding for this mission remains to be raised. VERTICAL (VERification and Test of the Initiation of CubeSats After Launch) is a mission of the Institute of Astronautics (LRT) of the TU-München for verification of critical components for the pico-satellite First-MOVE (Munich Orbital Verification Experiment) [2], which will be launched in late 2009. As the purpose of VERTICAL is to verify components which are used very closely after separation of a satellite from a launch vehicle, sounding rockets are a particularly suitable option for verification of these operations, as mission characteristics are very similar to those of an orbital mission in such an early phase. A flight on a sounding rocket closely simulates the following conditions to those on a CubeSat orbital launcher: - Load characteristics during ascent phase - Decrease of pressure to vacuum during ascent phase - Vacuum environment in high altitudes beyond Earth atmosphere during experiment operations - Reduced gravity environment during experiment operations Verification Items (VI) have been phrased which shall define how those critical systems can be efficiently ...
Context 2
... REXUS-4 payload comprised of five university experiments and one DLR Mobile Rocket Base experiment in an extra module. During the ballistic flight the MIRIAM experiment of the Universität der Bundeswehr München and the Mars Society Germany was separated from the main payload to test a balloon system that will be used for the entry of a probe in the Martian atmosphere in the future. Several cameras on the REXUS-4 payload as well as cameras and telemetry on the MIRIAM flight system monitored the separation and inflation during the ballistic flight phase. The VERTICAL experiment from the Technische Universität München verified the startup procedures of the CubeSat MOVE and its solar panel deployment under real spaceflight conditions. The HISPICO experiment of the Technische Universität Berlin tested a high- integrated S-Band transmitter. The REWICAS of the Technical University of Luleå consisted of three cameras. The EMSADA experiment from the same university is a multiple sensor and data acquisition unit [9]. The MIRIAM Experiment (Main Inflated Reentry Into the Atmosphere Mission test for ARCHIMEDES) is placed under the nosecone. It was the spaceflight test for the ARCHIMEDES project. ARCHIMEDES is an effort to probe the atmosphere of planet Mars by means of a hypersonic drag balloon, a device known as a “ballute” (a term coined by the Goodyear Corporation in 1959 by combining the terms “balloon” and “parachute”). The project is currently under study, proposed and supported by the Mars Society Germany, the Universität der Bundeswehr München, the AMSAT-DL e.V. organization and several other research institutions and industrial companies. The most important step in the development of ARCHIMEDES so far was the spaceflight test MIRIAM. MIRIAM was to test the deployment mechanism, the inflation process, the ballute behaviour during inflation and the high speed entry into the atmosphere on a ballistic trajectory. This is important to validate trajectory- and CFD analyses [4]. The spaceflight system consisted of 3 major elements: - The MIRIAM ballute spacecraft which comprises an instrumented pod and the helium-filled hypersonic drag balloon (ballute). As stated above, MRIAM’s pod instrumentation already closely resembled that of ARCHIMEDES, but purely for flight analysis purposes. The FMI- provided ATMOS-B pressure sensor was installed inside the balloon. The magnetometer for MIRIAM (MiriMag) was contributed by the IGEP institute and MAGSON. Paired with an optical still image camera it provided attitude information. The still image camera though is a commercially available low resolution unit which can be integrated cheaply and easily and is sufficient for an occasional attitude fix in combination with the other sensors. A suite of two different sets of accelerometers built by the ARCHIMEDES team and universities in Iasi and Pitesti, Romania gave deceleration and roll rate information. The Miriam Ballute was 4m in diameter and made of UPILEX 25 RN. The ballute had 32 segments which were bonded with a high-temperature high strength UPILEX-RN tape specially manufactured to MIRIAM mission specifications by Lohmann Tapes of Neuwied. - The Service Module (SM, see Figure 4) contained the inflation system, structural box, release mechanism, a telemetry and a life television subsystem. It also contained a set of cold gas thrusters. These thrusters were used to pull the Service Module away from MIRIAM after inflation. - The Camera Module which remained attached to the rocket. It documented the release and operation of the SM/Miriam system, as well as providing the structural interface between the MIRIAM flight system stack and the REXUS payload section. The camera module also contained the release mechanism for the Service Module / Miriam combined system. All three elements combined formed the MIRIAM Flight System Stack (see Figure 3). Due to strong cost requirements in the development of MIRIAM’s structure, special emphasis had to be put on commercially available and reliable components which are suitable for use in a zero-g and vacuum environment. All components have to also withstand the loads occurring during the launch and the ascent on top of a ballistic rocket. The Helium gas was stored in three CFRP pressure tanks at 200 bars (see Figure 4). These tanks are carbon- fibre wound low cost tanks normally used for paintball games. It was found that these components fulfil the MIRIAM requirements very well. To reduce the piping between the tanks and the valves, most of the piping was integrated into the base plate of the inflation systems deck. This plate is divided horizontally into two parts and the plumbing is milled directly into the aluminium plates. Sealing is done by conventional O- rings. Tests have shown that leakage is not a problem. The valves were connected directly to the channels in the base plate via special adapters with integrated gas channels. The only pipes necessary are those for connecting the channels with the thrust nozzles. One more is used to connect the main inflation control valve (ICV) to the central expansion chamber assembly. Due to weight and volume limitations, no conventional pressure regulator could be used. Two chambers of expansion volumes together with specially designed throttles and an inflation control valve (ICV) were used instead. The ICV was a high pressure injector valve and is controlled dynamically at a high frequency, thereby controlling the inflation hose pressure through pulse width modulation. The Instrument Pod was directly attached to the ballute. It consisted of a hexagonal shaped thin-walled container, completely milled out of aluminium. It contained all the sensors, camera, transmitter and computer as well as the batteries of the ballute spacecraft. It was located mainly inside the balloon. The ballute envelope thin film was clamped between the container and the circular cover. This cover had the same curvature as the ballute itself to give the spacecraft a perfectly spherical shape. All communication between the Instrument Pod and the Camera Module (CM) was done via an infra-red link through the camera window. The folded ballute spacecraft was held down inside the spring-loaded deployment container by a clamp ring. MIRIAM unfortunately did not meet all of its mission goals after one of the three main interlock bolts failed to properly separate the spacecraft from the rocket. As a result the MIRIAM ballute spacecraft was not fully deployed. However, the deployment and inflation control systems functioned as planned, as well as the observation platform, validating the method and yielding important data and experience based upon which an improved system can be designed. The next step in the development of ARCHIMEDES would therefore be the flight test of an improved version of MIRIAM. Based on the architecture of MIRIAM, its successor would feature not only a different separation mechanism, but also an improved ballute, an improved spacecraft bus and an improved observation system. However, funding for this mission remains to be raised. VERTICAL (VERification and Test of the Initiation of CubeSats After Launch) is a mission of the Institute of Astronautics (LRT) of the TU-München for verification of critical components for the pico-satellite First-MOVE (Munich Orbital Verification Experiment) [2], which will be launched in late 2009. As the purpose of VERTICAL is to verify components which are used very closely after separation of a satellite from a launch vehicle, sounding rockets are a particularly suitable option for verification of these operations, as mission characteristics are very similar to those of an orbital mission in such an early phase. A flight on a sounding rocket closely simulates the following conditions to those on a CubeSat orbital launcher: - Load characteristics during ascent phase - Decrease of pressure to vacuum during ascent phase - Vacuum environment in high altitudes beyond Earth atmosphere during experiment operations - Reduced gravity environment during experiment operations Verification Items (VI) have been phrased which shall define how those critical systems can be efficiently verified using the flight opportunity on Rexus-4. - Deployment Switches (DS): Launch service providers require CubeSats to be powered off during launch until deployment. Normally micro switches are used for deployment detection, which detect the loss of contact to the launch vehicle. All following operations, including power up, require feedback from these switches to be initiated. On VERTICAL, a total of 16 commercial switches are verified tocover a broad spectrum of manufacturers, the CubeSat standard only requires oneswitch on-board. - VI2 Solar Array Deployment Mechanism (SADM): MOVE’s solar panels have to be stowed during launch and cannot be deployed before or during the ejection of the CubeSat from the launch vehicle. The SADM, consisting of a set of springs and a Hold Down Release Mechanism (HDRM) was newly developed at TUM and has no space heritage. The HDRM is activated by melting a nylon wire and the solar panel is deployed by a set of springs. The function of the DSVA is to verify the deployment switches. A total of 16 micro switches are mounted on two brackets. During ...
Similar publications
Based on Swedish register data from 2003 to 2012, this study attempts to explain over-education and upward mobility among tertiary graduates. Rarely used explanatory factors are central in the analyses, such as ‘still in study’ and ‘field of education’. Tertiary graduates in low-wage jobs are regarded as over-educated. The results of this work sugg...
Educational equity was found deteriorating in Sweden from the late 1980s onwards. However, it was not clear what the main sources to this trend are. The present study was therefore to investigate the development of educational equity at different levels of the Swedish educational system to identify possible sources to the change. Students’ school g...
Thispaperreportsonthecomparativeeffectsonlearningoutcomesandlearner behaviour noted using three different CALL exercise types for German word order practice: multiple-choice (click), re-ordering (drag), and completion (type). Twenty-seven students of introductory German participated. For all exercise types students received error-specific feedback....
One of the purposes of instruction based on content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is in many cases to prepare students for higher education, but few studies have investigated the effect of CLIL on academic language. In this study, progress in English academic vocabulary use among CLIL (N=146) and non-CLIL (N=84) students in Swedish upper...
This study investigates cross-cultural differences in the interrelation between school performance, school segregation, and stress-related health among 9th-grade students in the greater Stockholm and Helsinki areas. Contrary to the Swedish case, it has been proposed that school performance in Finland is largely independent of the specific school at...
Citations
... MAPHEUS-1 was a two-stage unguided solid propellant sounding rocket similar to REXUS-4 [9]. The vehicle consisted of a Nike motor as 1 st stage, an Improved Orion as 2 nd stage, a motor adapter, a recovery system, a rate- control-system, a service system, the IGAS module, five experiment modules, a nosecone adapter and a nosecone. ...
There are numerous materials science experiments in microgravity, which can be realized on sounding rockets, e.g. the gelation of aerogels, directional solidification of alloys and diffusion measurements in metallic melts. Such a rocket must offer a period of good microgravity-conditions for more than 120 s. The MAPHEUS (Materialphysikalische Experimente unter Schwerelosigkeit) rocket of the German Aerospace Center DLR meets these requirements. The payload is based on modules with 356 mm diameter, which are also used in the REXUS project. MAPHEUS implements the newly developed REXUS service-system. This service-system can control the power supply and handles data communication and time event management of the scientific experiments. An RCS-Module (Rate-Control- System) has been designed and built. This module contains a tank filled with pressurized gas (nitrogen), solenoid valves and nozzles, which are used to reduce the spin during the ballistic flight phase to less than 30°/min providing excellent microgravity conditions. During the maiden flight, in May 2009 at Esrange, Sweden, the payload was transported with a double stage solid propellant rocket up to an apogee of about 140 km. The first stage, a Nike motor, burned for 3.5 s and then, 9 s after lift-off, the second stage, an Improved Orion motor, ignited. At an altitude of about 70 km a yo-yo system decreased the rotation of the vehicle about its’ longitudinal axis, which was spin-stabilized during the ascent. After the second stage was separated and the rotation rates were reduced by the RCS, the experiment phase began at an altitude above 100 km.
The scientific payload of MAPHEUS-1 consisted of three DLR internal experiment modules and a battery module from the DLR Institute of Materials Physics in Space, a measurement platform from the University of Applied Science Aachen, and the RB-MUSC from DLR Köln. The three material science experiments launched were AEROGET, an experiment to create frequency doubling aerogels, ATLAS-M, an experiment for diffusion measurements in molten metals and ARTEX-M, an experiment for directional solidification of AlSi-alloys. After the experiment phase, the payload re-enters the atmosphere and was decelerated by the aerodynamic drag. At an altitude of about 4.6 km the parachute system was released and the payload thus decelerated to a terminal velocity of 8 m/s. The DLR Institute of Space System was responsible for the project management and the DLR Mobile Rocket Base provided the rocket hardware and conducted the operations during campaign.
This paper gives an overview of the MAPHEUS-1 vehicle, the experiments, the successful maiden flight of the rate-control-system and the campaign. It also includes flight results and gives an outlook on the MAPHEUS programme.
... MAPHEUS-1 was a two-stage unguided solid propellant sounding rocket similar to REXUS-4 [8]. The vehicle consisted of a Nike motor as 1 st stage, an Improved Orion as 2 nd stage, a motor adapter, a recovery system, a rate-control-system, a service system, the IGAS module, five experiment modules, a nosecone adapter and a nosecone. ...
There are numerous materials science experiments in microgravity, which can be realized on sounding rockets, e.g. the gelation of aerogels, directional solidification of alloys and diffusion measurements in metallic melts. Such a rocket must offer a period of good microgravity-conditions for more than 120 s. The MAPHEUS (Materialphysikalische Experimente unter Schwerelosigkeit) rocket of the German Aerospace Center DLR meets these requirements.
This paper gives an overview on the MAPHEUS-1 vehicle, the experiments, the successful maiden flight of the rate-control-system and the campaign. The paper includes first flight results and it gives an outlook on the MAPHEUS programme.
This paper presents the development of a reefed Disk-Gap-Band (DGB) parachute with Huygens heritage for sounding rocket recovery. It starts with an overview of the rocket mission and then discusses the DGB design and geometric parameters. The integration of skirt reefing to minimize shock loads during inflation is explained. System verification tests, specifically tensile tests, are described. Wind tunnel testing was performed on a scaled-down version of the parachute with an active reefing system, yielding valuable information on drag and reefing performance. The paper concludes with recommendations for future DGB development.
In this study, a recovery system design is presented for a high-powered rocket, which can carry and place a payload that performs scientific value experiments up to any altitude, as well as recovering flight data, and providing safe recovery of both the rocket and the payload. Rescue systems were designed, individually tested and integrated as a dual deployment with the drogue parachute opening at the apogee and the main parachute opening at lower altitude. However, the presented system is a reusable recovery mechanism that reduces consumed materials and speeds up the preparation process. This design engineering builds an infrastructure to improve the system by making a positive contribution to future studies and eliminating the shortcomings of past studies with an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of various systems.
Besides recovering a rocket for just the flight data, one can opt to recover the entire rocket, including the tank and engine. This can be done for public relation reasons, but also with full rocket reusability in mind. This article describes three concepts using parachutes to recover a sounding rocket in its entirety. As a reference design, a Stratos III-like vehicle, developed by Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) is chosen.
The concepts described are a separation of nose cone and tank with two separate recovery systems, separation of nose cone and tank with one single recovery system, and full rocket recovery without rocket separation. For each of the concepts, a system breakdown is given including mass, reliability and performance estimations.
The article continues by explaining the various methods for parachute deployment that can be used. An overview of the advantages and disadvantage of the various systems is given here. Finally, the article provides a recommendation of when to use which deployment system, linking back to the concepts discussed before.
There are numerous materials science experiments in microgravity, which can be realized on sounding rockets, e.g. the gelation of aerogels, directional solidification of alloys and diffusion measurements in metallic melts. Such a rocket must offer a period of good microgravity-conditions for more than 120 s. The MAPHEUS (Materialphysikalische Experimente unter Schwerelosigkeit) rocket of the German Aerospace Center DLR meets these requirements. This paper gives an overview on the MAPHEUS-1 vehicle, the experiments, the successful maiden flight of the rate-control-system and the campaign. The paper includes first flight results and it gives an outlook on the MAPHEUS programme.
