Sending scientific
payloads into space is expensive business, and advanced rocket systems to
return them to Earth don't help the price tags.
On Friday Sept. 14,
however, the Young Engineers Satellite 2 (YES2) will test an inexpensive "space
mail" delivery system using a pendulum-like deployment to swing a
lightweight payload back to Earth.
YES2, which
will
piggyback on a Foton-M3 capsule, is scheduled to launch into space at 7:00
a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) aboard a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. In addition to the student-built satellite, 40 experiments will be conducted aboard the
main Foton capsule, including one with live geckos and newts.
Space
pendulum
YES2 is a
spire-like payload is made of three main components: A red
ball-like payload called Fotino; a support system called MASS; and a
spring-loaded mechanism called FLOYD. Ground controllers will activate the
package during Foton's final days in orbit.
"This will
be moment the YES2 team has been waiting for," said Roger Walker, a YES2
project manager with the European Space Agency (ESA). "We hope to achieve a
number of objectives: the deployment of the 30-kilometer (18.6-mile) tether,
the successful de-orbit of the lightweight re-entry capsule using the tether
rather than a rocket engine, and the survival of the capsule all the way to the
ground."
The magic
moment will start when spring-loaded FLOYD ejects Fotino and MASS on a tether
made of Dyneema, the world's strongest man-made fiber. As MASS keeps the tether
taut, gravity will swing the two-piece package toward the Earth like a
pendulum on a string.
When Fotino
reaches a "zero" point, MASS will cut the tether and drop Fotino directly
towards the planet's surface. YES2's team of 450 students from across the globe
hope their 12-pound (5.5 kilogram) device, five years in the making, will
safely parachute to the arid steppes of Kazakhstan after reentry.
"If all
goes well, we should have confirmation of landing," Walker said. Should
the mechanism work, it could prove to be one of the most inexpensive systems to
return an orbiting payload to the surface--a design that may be a boon to
International Space Station experiments needing to reach eartbound scientists on a tight
budget.
Zero-g geckos
The
ball-and-tether "space mail" delivery system, however, won't be the
only payload reaching space about 171 miles (275 kilometers) above the Earth.
The Foton
capsule will also carry 40 experiments weighing in at 882 pounds (400
kilograms). Scientists will use the results to explore fluid physics, biology,
crystal growth, radiation exposure and exobiology in space.
NASA, which
has some experiments aboard the ESA-led mission, is using the flight to test
animal biology during Foton's 12-day orbit. One experiment will monitor the
effects of microgravity on newts and geckos in aluminum containers.
Scientists
at NASA's Ames Research Center, in Moffett Field, Calif., developed eight
one-inch-deep (2.54-centimeter) aluminum boxes to house the animals, along with
small video cameras, lights and water pumps.
"NASA's
long-term goal is to use simple, easily maintained species to determine the
biological responses to the rigors of spaceflight, including the virtual
absence of gravity," said Kenneth Souza, a project scientist at NASA Ames,
said of the experiment.
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