Suaineadh Selected for REXUS 11/12 Campaign!!!!

We just received the email that we were selected to launch our experiment on a REXUS sounding rocket in February/March 2012. Everyone in the team is very excited about the great news. There will be definetly some celebration in Glasgow and Stockholm tonight :).

Its time to prepare now for the Student Training Week and Preliminary design Review (PDR) at DLR Oberpfaffenhofen in February.

Team Awaiting Decision on Selection

Tomorrow (Friday, 10th of December) is decision day, ESA/DLR will inform us about their selection of the experiments for the REXUS 11/12 campaign. All the team members in Glasgow and Stockholm are anticipating this important decision. We will update the blog as soon as we receive further information.

The Selection Workshop is over

Sad to say, it’s our last day in snowy Holland. But we made our fond farewells last night with a visit to the local pubs. The first one had what we believe was a gun shot in the front window (Thomas chose this one) and the second was a brilliant corner pub with a fine selection of beers. We also introduced Thomas and Adam to their first Scottish whiskey (Thomas liked, but Adam said he could have gotten the same taste from simply licking wood!!)

Anyway, as it was our last day today, we made a quick trip to the airport early to check in our luggage and then proceeded swiftly to Amsterdam. We enjoyed a canal boat tour of the city and then Thomas decided to repeat the tour but instead on foot…..not happy!!! Nah, it was good, although some people should close their curtains because you could see them through their windows standing in their underwear (although, come to think of it, there were a lot of red lights about?!!). Jokes aside, our trip to ESA has been a fantastic experience and we thank the guys at ESTEC immensely for the opportunity. Jerker and Adam are on their way back to Sweden whilst Thomas and Malcolm prepare to brave the snow of Scotland again!!!!

We shall let you all know the decision of the judging panel for Rexus as soon as we find out, wish us luck!!!!

Presentation Day

After practicing all evening for the presentation and having a good night sleep we got up and headed out to the cold bus that took us to ESTEC.

Whilst there we made our presentation. Even in the absence of a morning coffee, we think that we did our best at the presentation as well as answering the questions from the selection board.

After the presentation we had a small ("wee") amount coffee to celebrate (8 x Espresso for Jerker) and then listened to all of the BEXUS proposals. When arriving back at the hotel we went down to the snowy beach shown in the pictures. Now begins the long wait until next Friday (10^th) when the results from the selection board is posted. Wish us the best of luck!

2nd day Selection Workshop

Today we started our day with breakfast ... actually not exactly all of us ... only Adam went for breakfast while we were still sleeping (the bus leaving at 8:30am is just too early). However we woke up full of positive energy to go and listen to the first presentations of the other teams fighting for a spot on the REXUS 11/12 rocket. There were 3 more presentations before launch ... yyy lunch. After that we had the great opportunity to visit the ESTEC facilities. First we saw the Satellite Testing Facility with one of the Galileo satellites under development, unfortunately taking pictures was forbidden. Then we went to Erasmus User Centre for International Space Station, where we lost the group because we had to take a group picture in the ERASMUS (COLUMBUS control) center.

First day Selection Workshop

After missing two buses this morning, the Suaineadh team decided to walk the 5.5km through the blustering snow to ESTEC (it took us roughly an hour with an Italian BEXUS team trailing us). The first day was mainly focused on welcome and orientation presentations. We're about to finalize our presentation tonight, lets hope for the best.

Comment on the side: Dutch windows are huge!

Suaineadh Team arrived in snowy Noordwijk

The Suaineadh Team arrived at Noordwijk without having to much trouble caused by snowy weather in Glasgow, Stockholm and Amsterdam. After a nice dinner at the hotel, the work on the presentation begins. We'll have our presentation on Thursday at 9:10am, the official Selection Workshop at ESTEC starts tomorrow at noon.

Suaineadh Experiment Shorlisted for Selection Workshop

The Suaineadh experiment has been shortlisted for the REXUS 11/12 campaign and will be presented at the Selection Workshop between Tue 30 November and Thur 02 December 2010 at ESA's Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noorwijk, The Netherlands. The four team members that are selected to present Suaineadh are Thomas Sinn (University of Strathclyde, UK), Malcolm McRobb (University of Glasgow, UK), Jerker Skogby (KTH, Sweden) and Adam Wujek (KTH, Sweden).

Suaineadh Proposal for REXUS 11/12 campaign

The Suaineadh experiment has the purpose to prove the concept of deploying and stabilising a space web in micro-gravity by means of the centrifugal forces acting on the spinning assembly which is ejected from the nosecone of the REXUS rocket. Controlled web deployment and stabilisation will be achieved by an active control method. This new approach has the potential of drastically simplifying the design of a Furoshiki net while enhancing its stability. The experiment will provide an enormous scientific return on the behaviour of a centrifugally deployed and stabilised large structure in space. The experiment can be split into two distinct sections; the ejectable section (CHAD (Central Hub And Daughters)) and the data storage section (DAST (Data Acquisition and Storage)) onboard REXUS. The ejectable section (CHAD) carries out all mission operations, including web deployment and stabilisation. CHAD consists of the central hub, a square web (2m x 2m) and four corners masses (daughters) attached to the web. Prior to the deployment; the web and corner masses are wrapped around the central hub. The ejection of the system from the REXUS rocket occurs at an altitude of approximately 62 km. Three institutions (University of Strathclyde, University of Glasgow and KTH Royal Institute of Technology), with more than 15 students, are working together to achieve the goal of designing, manufacturing and testing of the whole Suaineadh experiment in order to successfully launch the experiment on board of REXUS 11/12.