The BEXUS-IMUFUSION project and its Nordhausen student team
An IAE team took part in the REXUS/BEXUS 26/27 student competition
The REXUS/BEXUS programme
"The REXUS/BEXUS programme is realised under a bilateral Agency Agreement between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). The Swedish share of the payload has been made available to students from other European countries through the collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). Experts from DLR, SSC, ZARM and ESA provide technical support to the student teams throughout the project. EuroLaunch, the cooperation between the Esrange Space Centre of SSC and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) of DLR, is responsible for the campaign management and operations of the launch vehicles." /DLR, ESA/
Successful flight of BEXUS-IMUFUSION in Esrange
From 12 October 2018 to 22 October 2018, the BEXUS 26 and BEXUS 27 stratospheric balloon flights took place at the Esrange Space Center (Swedish Space Corporation, SSC) in northern Sweden near Kiruna. The BEXUS-IMUFUSION experiment was housed in the BEXUS 26 gondola. The position, navigation and climate data could be stored in the developed electronics and simultaneously visualised in the team's own ground station. The BEXUS 26 nacelle survived the landing without any major damage.
Some key data of the BEXUS-IMUFUSION flight:Â Â
- Flight duration: 7.40 to 11.20 a.m.
- Maximum altitude: 27,499 m
- Minimum temperature: -53.72 °C
- Minimum pressure: 14.52 mbar
- Stored data volume: 14 GB
Information on the objectives, the system design, the results of the BEXUS-IMUFUSION experiment and publications can be found in the Technology Newsletter IMUFUSION - No. 3 - The project overview. The press release about the successful flight can be viewed at News/Press archive/2018. In building 20, first floor, there is a wall display case with the system components and part of the balloon envelope.
Enquiries regarding system design, data fusion and trajectory calculation can be directed to: M. Eng. Mikael Steurer, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Viehmann, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus-Peter Neitzke.
The team and the preparations
The project team consisted of (from left):
- Prof Dr Matthias Viehmann, Senior Scientist
- M. Eng. Mikael Steurer, team leader, doctoral student HS Nordhausen/TU Dresden
- Prof. Dr Klaus-Peter Neitzke, Senior Scientist
- Hannes Meyer, Student AEE
- Max Goretti, Student AEE
- Johannes-Friedrich Knappe, Student AEE
- Johannes MĂĽller, Student AEE
Video of the successful launch of the BEXUS 27 stratospheric balloon
The students of the Bachelor's degree programme in Automation and Electronics Engineering (AEE) were enthusiastic and motivated by this practical project. In addition to getting to know the other European teams and their experiments, they received valuable information about project management, system design and electronics development for special applications.
In February 2018, the team spent a training week in Esrange, met other European teams and the programme managers and was able to clarify organisational and technological issues relating to the BEXUS-IMUFUSION experiment. After the impressive stay in Esrange, the team focussed on the tasks at hand:
- Development of sensory front-end,
- Hardware and software design,
- System integration,
- Prototyping and testing,
- Project documentation.
There were also other meetings, such as a critical design review at the European Space Research and Technology Centre ESTEC in Noordwijk near Amsterdam and a pressure-temperature test at ZARM Fallturm-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH Bremen. After analysing the data recorded during the flight, the project results were presented at a final meeting at DLR in June 2019.
Current news about student activities (Facebook)
Sponsors of the IMUFUSION experiment
In addition to the central programme sponsors and sponsors, the following sponsors contributed specifically to the Nordhausen team's IMUFUSION experiment:
- ZARGES GmbH Weilheim, contribution: Support for the transport of scientific equipment
- IMG Electronic & Power Systems GmbH Nordhausen, contributions: Technical consulting, electronics manufacturing and type testing
- CiS Forschungsinstitut fĂĽr Mikrosensorik GmbH Erfurt, contribution: Chip design and sample production of a pressure sensor for the special measuring range
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