Marcus Hörschgen-Eggers

• Dipl. Ing. (FH), M.Sc.
• Group Leader at German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Im Rahmen des Programms SHEFEX, bei dem unter anderem ein neues Temperaturschutzkonzept für hypersonische Flugbedingungen erprobt wurde, entstanden bei der Mobilen Raketenbasis (MORABA), die für die Durchführung des eigentlichen Flugversuchs verantwortlich war, neue und anspruchsvolle Anforderungen für die Übertragung der Experimentdaten per Teleme...

A first sounding rocket campaign dedicated to investigate the creation mechanism of Polar Mesosphere Winter Echoes (PMWE) was conducted in April 2018 from the north Norwegian Andøya Space Center (69 ∘N, 16 ∘E). Two instrumented sounding rockets were launched on 13th and 18th of April under PMWE and non-PMWE conditions, respectively. In this paper w...

The objective of the Boundary Layer Transition (BOLT) flight experiment is to investigate the hypersonic boundary-layer transition mechanisms on a low-curvature concave surface with a swept leading edge at Mach numbers between five and seven. This shall be achieved during a captive-carry flight experiment on an S31/Improved Orion sounding rocket. T...

Sounding rockets are a platform eminently suited for conducting experiments with supersonic and hypersonic experimental vehicles. For many years, but especially during the last decade, DLR's Mobile Rocket Base MORABA took part as a launch provider in a variety of missions dedicated to hypersonic and reentry vehicle research. This included missions...

For most suborbital space flights, the successful recovery of the experimental payload is a critical point at the very end of the mission. Beside land based recovery, particular missions require a sea recovery in the Arctic Ocean. Therefore, a variety of passive floating systems have been developed and used by DLR's Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA). Usi...

Sounding rockets are unique experimental platforms! They are unmanned, readily available, cost-effective and can achieve both, in-situ measurements or flight experimentation in all layers of the atmosphere and multi-minute operations in space with altitudes and ranges of well over 1,000 km. During the flight, the data can be sent to ground stations...

The application of aerospace thermal protection systems (TPS) is not limited to orbital flight and re-entry vehicles. Although less critical in terms of the thermal load’s magnitude, it is also an essential part of sounding rocket primary structures. For a large variety of launch vehicles, DLR’s Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) uses thermal protection s...

In November 2015, the DLR Mobile Rocket Base will launch the MAIUS-1 rocket vehicle at Esrange, Northern Sweden. The MAIUS-A experiment is a pathfinder atom optics experiment. The scientific objective of the mission is the first creation of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in space and performing atom interferometry on a sounding rocket. MAIUS-1 comprise...

DLR’s Mobile Rocket Base provides a “suborbital gate” into space to the scientific world. Thereby its engineering competences are not limited to the launch vehicle itself, they also comprise payload development support such as the MSMA (Measurement System Middle Atmosphere) ejection mechanism realised in close cooperation with the payload scientist...

This report is a summary of the activities performed by the X-TRAS (Expertise Raumtransportsysteme) group within the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2014, based on the data and design created by the VLM-1 development team of DLR and the Brazilian Aerospace Technology and Science Department (DCTA/IAE). The analyses were conducted with the present c...

The Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA), a departement of DLR’s Space Operations and Astronaut Training Institute fosters the national and international scientific community to prepare and implement sounding rocket and balloon borne experiments in the fields of aeronomy, astronomy, geophysics, hypersonic and especially microgravity research worldwide. In a...

Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA), a division of the Space Operations and Astronaut Training Department of DLR (German Aerospace Center) provides the national and international scientific community with the opportunity to prepare and implement rocketand balloon-borne experiments. The fields of research include aeronomy, astronomy, geophysics, material sc...

Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA), a section of DLR’s Space Operations and Astronaut Training Department fosters the national and international scientific community to prepare and implement sounding rocket and balloon borne experiments in the fields of aeronomy, astronomy, geophysics, hypersonic and especially microgravity research worldwide. In addition...

The purpose of the Sharp Edge Flight Experiment program (SHEFEX), is to investigate the aerodynamic behavior and thermal problems of unconventional shapes for re-entry vehicles comprising multi-facetted surfaces with sharp edges. The main object of these experiments is the correlation of numerical analysis with real flight data, with respect to the...

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. REXUS-4 was a two-stage unguided solid propellant sounding rocket. The vehicle consisted of a Nike motor as 1st stage, an Improved Orion motor as 2nd stage,...

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 Exper...

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...

The SHarp Edge Flight EXperiment (SHEFEX) is a DLR program to investigate aerodynamic behaviour and thermal protection problems of re-entry vehicles at hypersonic velocities, using unconventional shapes comprising multi-facetted surfaces with sharp edges. SHEFEX 1 was launched on a parabolic trajectory from Andøya Rocket Range in 2005 to provide a...

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 Exper...

Up to the TEXUS-44 microgravity research mission, successfully launched in February 2008, the payloads of the TEXUS vehicles were exclusively equipped with the Magellan (former Bristol Aerospace Ltd.) ORSA recovery system, integrated into the ogive nose cone. With the intention to gain more independency from the North American market and the inhere...

The first launch of the SHarp Edge Flight EXperiment (SHEFEX) was from Andøya Rocket Range (ARR) Norway, in October 2005. Its purpose was to investigate the aerodynamic behaviour and thermal problems of an unconventional shape for re-entry vehicles comprising multi-facetted surfaces with sharp edges and an asymmetric form and to provide a correlati...

On Thursday, October 27th, 2005 the SHarp Edge Flight EXperiment SHEFEX was successfully launched at the Andøya Rocket Range in northern Norway. The project, being performed under responsibility of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) flew on top of a two-stage solid propellant sounding rocket. One purpose of the experiment was the investigation of po...

The purpose of the Sharp Edge Flight Experiment (SHEFEX) was to investigate the aerodynamic behavior and thermal problems of an unconventional shape for re-entry vehicles comprising multi-facetted surfaces with sharp edges. The main object of this experiment was the correlation of numerical analysis with real flight data with respect to the aerodyn...

Within the SHEFEX flight test programme, the German Aerospace Center focuses on the development for re-entry and hypersonic technology. Using adapted commercial sounding rocket systems as used for micro gravity research it is possible to perform cost effective flight tests in a short time period. Thus, besides material or structural testing of hard...

High costs and an unsatisfactory technological readiness level for components are the two main limiting parameters to design and fly new generation space vehicles. Since the thermal protection system (TPS) is one of the cost driving factors, German Aerospace Center (DLR) started a new cost effective hypersonic flight experiment program SHEFEX, whic...

The purpose of the SHarp Edge Flight Experiment SHEFEX was the investigation of the aerodynamic behaviour and thermal problems of possible new shapes for future launcher or re-entry vehicles. The main focus was the improvement of common space vehicle shapes by application of facetted surfaces and sharp edges. The experiment has permitted the accura...

High costs and an unsatisfactory technological readiness level for components are the two main limiting parameters to design and fly new generation space vehicles. Since the thermal protection system (TPS) is one of the cost driving factors, German Aerospace Center (DLR) started a new cost effective hypersonic flight experiment program SHEFEX, whic...

The purpose of the SHarp Edge Flight Experiment SHEFEX was the investigation of the aerodynamic behaviour and thermal problems of possible new shapes for future launcher or re-entry vehicles. The main focus was the improvement of common space vehicle shapes by application of facetted surfaces and sharp edges. The experiment has permitted the accura...

The purpose of the Sharp Edge Flight Experiment (SHEFEX) is to investigate the aerodynamic behaviour and thermal problems of an unconventional shape for re-entry vehicles, comprising multi-facetted surfaces with sharp edges. The main object of this experiment is the correlation of numerical analysis with real flight data in terms of the aerodynamic...

The purpose of the SHarp Edge Flight EXperiment SHEFEX is the investigation of possible new shapes for future launcher or reentry vehicles [1]. The main focus is the improvement of common space vehicle shapes by application of facetted surfaces and sharp edges. The experiment will enable the time accurate investigation of the flow effects and their...

This paper describes the possibilities of sounding rockets to provide a platform for flight experiments in hypersonic conditions as a supplement to wind tunnel tests. Real flight data from measurement durations longer than 30 seconds can be compared with predictions from CFD calculations. This paper will regard projects flown on sounding rockets, b...

Sounding rocket and balloon launches have been conducted since more than 30 years at Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), ESRANGE. MORABA, the Mobile Rocket Base of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), has planned and performed sounding rocket and balloon launches throughout the world since the late sixties. With the creation of EuroLaunch, the long-last...

The purpose of the Sharp Edge Flight Experiment (SHEFEX) is to investigate the aerodynamic behaviour and thermal problems of an unconventional shape for re-entry vehicles, comprising multi-facetted surfaces with sharp edges. The main object of this experiment is the correlation of numerical analysis with real flight data in terms of the aerodynamic...

Sounding rocket and balloon launches have been conducted since more than 30 years at Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), ESRANGE. MORABA, the Mobile Rocket Base of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), has planned and performed sounding rocket and balloon launches throughout the world since the late sixties. With the creation of EuroLaunch, the long-last...