ERIG e.V.

This week two ERIG members Lars Klingenstein and Peter Ohr are attending the 26th European Space Agency - ESA Symposium on European Rocket & Balloon programmes and related research in Luzern, Switzerland. Peter Ohr gave a great presentation about our REXUS/BEXUS experiment CREATE which we developed during the last two and a half years and which was launched this March from ESRANGE, Sweden. It is a lot of fun to meet like-minded people and listen to great talks about latest sounding rocket and balloon research and development in Europe. We were also happy to meet a lot of other REXUS teams of our cycle again and to follow up on the outcome of their experiments. Furthermore, a number of organizers from SSC - Swedish Space Corporation, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V., MORABA, ZARM and ESA were also present to talk to and make connections with. This event marks the last official part of the REXUS cycle. However, for CREATE the journey continues with the analysis of our printed composite samples in the upcoming weeks. A paper about the outcome of the analysis will follow. We are grateful that this trip was financially supported by the Braunschweiger Hochschulbund e. V.

For the successful test flight of Phoebe Mk.2 🚀 at the beginning of the year, the electronics stack contributed significantly. It consists primarily of three units: PSU – Power Supply Unit 🔋 The PSU board's task is to provide suitable power supply to all electrical components of the rocket, which is redundantly supplied by two parallel-connected batteries. Additionally, important parameters such as voltage levels, current, and temperatures are monitored and evaluated. The inputs and outputs can be configured according to the specific application requirements. IFC – ICARUS Flight Computer 🧠 The flight computer collects data from connected sensors (barometer, accelerometer and gyroscope (IMU)) and integrates them to derive crucial parameters such as altitude, speed, and orientation, from which the current flight state is determined. Upon reaching maximum altitude, the IFC triggers the recovery system (parachute), ensuring a controlled descent to the ground. RSS – Rocket System Stalker 📡 The RSS primarily facilitates data transmission between the rocket and the ground station. It collects important telemetry data and transmits them towards Earth using LoRa radio technology. Additionally, the reception of GNSS data allows for more precise tracking of the rocket's position. The ERIG's proprietary bus system ERBus ensures efficient communication between the individual units of the electronics segment and the launch monitoring system (connected via umbilical). All PCBs of the presented subsystems (see images) were conceptualized, designed, and partially manufactured by us. If you would like to learn more, visit our ERIG e.V. booth at the ILA Berlin - Pioneering Aerospace (hall 6, booth 485) from June 5th to June 9th, 2024 - We would be pleased to see you there!

CREATE has been launched! On 14th of march at 13:00 MEZ the REXUS 31 rocket lifted from the MRL launchpad in ESRANGE, Kiruna 🚀 91 seconds after liftoff CREATE received the signal from the service module of the rocket to start the experiment phase. In the following two and a half minutes the experiment 3D-printed carbon reinforced PLA samples while experiencing microgravity. We are extremely happy to announce that the experiment setup worked as intended and the samples could successfully be recovered after flight! Team CREATE is now back in Germany where it will soon start with the investigation of the produced samples. We would once again like to take the chance to thank Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V. ,ZARM , SSC - Swedish Space Corporation and European Space Agency - ESA for the incredible experiences we were allowed to collect along the way from the selection workshop in 2021 to the launch campaign of the last two weeks. But that's not it! Just recently our abstract to European Space Agency - ESAs Rocket and Ballon Symposium in Luzern in May 2024 got accepted! On this conference we will publish and present a paper with the results of CREATE. Stay tuned! First image by Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V. (MORABA)

Check out our new video about the scientific payload of our rover ORTHOS! It is designed to detect traces of life in soil samples by detecting the presence of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). The ATP is detected by means of a bioluminescence reaction with firefly luciferase assay. Therefore, the payload is equipped with a highly sensitive photon-counting photometer. The rover together with the payload is intended to be used within the European Rover Challenge (ERC) which is one of the biggest student competitions in the field of robotics. The development of the payload was supported by LASER COMPONENTS and Biozym Scientific who provided a highly sensitive avalanche photodiode and the chemicals needed for the bioluminescence analysis procedure. If you are curious and want to see it up close, come visit our stand at ILA Berlin - Pioneering Aerospace. We would be glad to see you there and talk more about the rover and science payload! All devices we will present there.

The time has come: after two and a half years of planning, designing, testing, and integrating, we finally arrived at the Esrange Space Center to launch our experiment CREATE. The launch campaign marks the final stage of the REXUS/BEXUS program, a German-Swedish initiative by Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V. , ZARM , European Space Agency - ESA , Moraba, and SSC - Swedish Space Corporation where several european teams get the opportunity to develop an experiment for a balloon or a sounding rocket 🚀 The CREATE experiment's purpose is to investigate gravity's influence on the printing process of carbon fiber reinforced PLA. Esrange is located in the north of Sweden and operated by SSC. Besides REXUS, multiple other high altitude sounding rockets and stratospheric balloons are launched each year. In the first days, we finalised the experiment integration and fixed some remaining hard- and software issues. Every desicion is made in close contact to the supervisors and the other RX31 teams, to ensure that every safety precaution is followed so that the launch is successful. Then, the experiment undergoes several communication tests, individually and also in combination with the other experiments on the same rocket. During the following bench tests, the flight timeline from T-600 until T+600 is simulated to see, if the experiments behave correctly. Besides CREATE, TRACE (Space Team Aachen e.V. , Ferras (Small Satellite Student Society of the University of Stuttgart - KSat e.V. ) and PR4 Space launched on board the RX31 rocket. The first launch opportunity will be next Tuesday, depending on the weather conditions. Until then, we also have the time to get in contact with the other teams and the organizing staff, which is a lot of fun and also a big part of the whole program. Maybe we also get the chance to see some auroras or reindeer in our free time ✨️ Stay tuned for further updates, also on the Technische Universität Braunschweig channel in the next week.

From Monday to Wednesday this week our CREATE team visited the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) for the REXUS 31 Benchtest. The benchtest marks the final test before the launch campaign which takes place in March this year! During the test the experiment was fully integrated with the other REXUS 31 experiments (Small Satellite Student Society of the University of Stuttgart - KSat e.V. Space Team Aachen e.V. @PR4) and the rocket subsystems. We are happy to announce that communication with the rocket as well as the fully automated sample production during the test was successful which makes us excited for the upcoming launch campaign in ESRANGE 🚀 Thanks to Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V. , ZARM and SSC - Swedish Space Corporation for the great experience!

Last December we had the pleasure to attend the so called integration week of the REXUS/BEXUS program with our experiment CREATE. Goal of the three long days at ZARM was to prepare everything for experiment hand-over. This includes an integrated software test with the other experiments on the rocket, as well as finalizing the flight hardware. Although we encountered some last minute problems, we were able to make good progress and improved certain subsystems of the experiment. Additionally, we had the opportunity to meet and talk to the other REXUS teams and got to know interesting details of their projects. We are very much looking forward to the benchtest at Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V. in Oberpfaffenhofen next week, which will mark the last step before the launch campaign in March. Stay tuned for further updates!

Recently, we visited the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) in Bremen to perform the vibration test for our REXUS/BEXUS experiment CREATE. The goal of this test is to ensure that the experiment is robust enough to withstand the mechanical stress it experiences during the launch of the REXUS rocket. During the test CREATE was already mounted in its module to resemble the final flight configuration as much as possible. In the attached picture you can see our experiment mounted on the shaker together with Small Satellite Student Society of the University of Stuttgart - KSat e.V.. We are happy to announce that the mechanical setup of our experiment performed really well during the test. There was no damage or malfunction discoverd during and after the test which makes us really confident for the upcoming launch campaign in march 2024! Next week we will return to the ZARM facilities to attend the REXUS integration week. During this 3-days-event CREATE is integrated and tested with it the other REXUS-31 experiments for the first time! We really look forward to the integration week, stay tuned 🚀