From Garching into space: TUM students have launched a satellite that could one day research the junk in space.
We were there for the test flight.
Garching
- "He flies, he flies", it echoes over the parking lot on the TUM campus in Garching.
The 70 students standing around cheer, they raise their arms and organize little dances of joy - and that on a Saturday morning at nine o'clock, a rather unusual time for students to take care of their studies and university.
However, this morning is a special one for those present: Your project “Move-III” has just been lifted into the air with a stratospheric balloon.
Three “packages”, a “GoPro” camera, an infrared camera and a satellite hang on a long line.
To the untrained eye it looks like two shoeboxes wrapped in gold foil, but it is supposed to track down space debris at some point.
On this day he sets off on a student test flight.
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The final checks before the start are carried out by (from left) Zeyu Zu, Dominik Still and Selina Weber.
© Sabina Brosch
It takes an hour and forty minutes for the balloon to reach the stratosphere, where it bursts and the gondolas attached to a rope float back to earth. The students suspect that the gondolas land near Rosenheim, at least they had calculated this location beforehand using simulations. In fact, the satellite wrapped in Styrofoam comes down unscathed from a mountain slope south of Munich with the help of a parachute. The “GoPro” camera that was flown along and an infrared camera survived the flight and landing unscathed. Not only that: The first glance at the data collected during the flight showed that all systems were working properly. The two cameras "took great pictures, the" GoPro "camera showed how the balloon burst",tells the press spokesman about "Move", Michael Vogt. The students also quickly read out the temperature and air pressure data.
The first images from the infrared camera, which is supposed to detect forest fires from space, are also already available. The exact evaluation of the data will take some time. The students are satisfied with the "Move" test flight. They had been preparing for this day for a good two years. "Move", which stands for "Munich Orbital Verification Experiment", is a project of the Faculty of Aerospace Technology and Geodesy, involving physicists, computer scientists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers and business IT specialists from freshmen to master's students from all over the world Countries. “Because of the lockdown, next to nothing happened for a year, and we weren't even at university for six months. We have only been working really hard again in the last three weeks, ”explains Matti Ukkola,the student leader of "Move". He is studying electrical engineering in the sixth semester. With "Move-III" the third satellite developed by students goes into the air, which the white, helium-filled balloon carries to a height of 31.9 kilometers.
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“Have planned three more starts”: The students Lars Martin (left) and Matti Ukkola from the “Move” team.
© Sabina Brosch
“Our goal is to develop and improve current space debris models,” explains Ukkola.
This is important because "traffic in space is getting denser".
Many satellites are floating in space, are broken, no longer work and some of them are no longer controllable.
They then collide and produce space debris that flies around in large pieces or small particles.
There are currently only estimates but no data.
Ukkola: "They want to determine and research."
At the moment it is still using a self-made “box”, the inner workings of which consist of sensors or circuit boards for measuring technology, but the university project is intended to serve as the basis for launching a satellite into space with a rocket in the distant future.
When the time comes, the students can only speculate.
Until then, they will continue to use a stratospheric balloon as a means of transport.
However, they have their own research in mind.
“We have already planned three more launches,” adds Ukkula's fellow student Lars Martin.
The next one is planned for October this year together with the University of Copenhagen, the Danes are docking their own project on the subject of communication in space with the Garching students.
You can find more news from Garching and the district of Munich here.
