91Ö±²¥

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 Board (SNSB).

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 Center of SSC and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) of DLR, is responsible for the campaign management and operations of the launch vehicles.

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Technical details

The solar telescope design will be based upon a Raspberry Pi optical telescope called , developed by one of our team advisors, Mark Wrigley, and AiryLab EdgeHD 800 HaT Solar Telescope System developed by .

The new design is step further than PiKon as it will utilise larger mirrors, specialist optical filters and a higher resolution camera to increase the quality of the data.

A sensor and motorised system will detect and control the attitude of the telescope and the data collected will be stored on hard drives during the flight.

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Intended outcomes

The assumption is that light incident upon the telescope at this altitude is less warped than light incident upon a telescope on the ground.

Resulting images from the experiment will be used to compare against industry standards and assess the viability of such a product.

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Activities and updates

• Project SunbYte: Launching into the stratosphere

• Sixth day in SSC, Esrange. We passed our individual check and then ran interference tests with other experiments. Launch tomorrow morning, don't miss it! 19 October 2017

• Fifth day in SSC, Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden, 18 October 2017

• Fourth day in SSC, Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden, 17 October 2017

• Third day in SSC, Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden, 16 October 2017

• Second day in SSC, Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden, 15 October 2017

• Preparing our experiment for our BEXUS flight, Esrange Space Centre, Kiruna, Sweden, 14 October 2017

• Preparing for launch campaign, assembly training at the SunbYte lab, 27 September 2017

• Experiment acceptance review, we're going to launch! 20 September 2017

• Ideas Bazaar and SunbYte presentation at the University of 91Ö±²¥, 13 September 2017
• The focuser has arrived, 12 September 2017
• Pitch assembly finished, 30 August 2017
• Sensor integration, 27 August 2017
• Vacuum test campaign in Northumbria University. The motor survived! 21-22 August 2017 
• Preparations for a temporal assembly for electronics vacuum testing at Northumbria University, 19-20 August 2017
• iCybie has been helping Project SunbYte at the lab, 8 August 2017

• Integration progress review with ZARM and ESA, 8 August 2017
• Etalon has arrive, 4 August 2017
• The Electrical team working at full speed to overcome the limitations of its actuation system, 28 July 2017
• Materials are finished, thanks to Stuart Richards from the Diamond workshop, 28 July 2017
• Telescope arrived. Thank you to Rupert at , 14 July 2017

• Telescope platform is completed, 12 July 2017
• Harmonic drive arrived, 10 July 2017
• SunbYte outreach event, Diamond Building, 91Ö±²¥, 8 July 2017
• SunbYte presentation at National Astronomy Meeting, Hull, 2-6 July 2017
• A-level student Miles Soloman will join our team, 29 June 2017
• Harmonic Drives and SunbYte meeting, 12 June 2017
• Mockup gondola ready for testing, 6 June 2017
• Critical design review, 29 May - 1 June 2017
• Improved LEGO Gimbal, 21 May 2017

• Pint of Science event, 91Ö±²¥, 17 May 2017

• Soldering course at ESTEC, May 2017
• Gimbal prototype, 23 April 2017
• Second prototype, all parts for gimbal printed, 12 April 2017
• STEM event for school students, Diamond Building, the University of 91Ö±²¥, 5 April 2017
• Sketch of the updated gimbal prototype, 3 April 2017
• Work on the prototype (60mm Halpha telescope), 31 March 2017

• Prototype print and assembling, 31 March 2017
• 3D print of prototype parts and work on CAD design, 30 March 2017
• Mechanical, electrical and software team meetings, 29 March 2017
• Compass System Equipment and Testing, 26 March 2017
• 91Ö±²¥ Festival of Science and Engineering, 22 March 2017

• SunbYte presentation at a school in Doncaster, 20 March 2017
• Prototype tests
• Preliminary Design (PDR) in Munich, 20-24 February 2017
• SunbYte - designing for space, STEM, 91Ö±²¥, 15 February 2017
• SunbYte presentation at UK solar missions forum, London, 9 February 2017
• Presentation for REXUS/BEXUS panel, Noordwijk, November 2016