Today, August 16th 2010 the the first European CanSat Competition for high-school students was officially opened at 9 AM by Chris de Cooker, Head of ESA International Relations department.

Ten teams, from different ESA Member States, are participating in the competition. The participating countries are: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.

The jury will select the three winners of the 2010 European Competition based on the teams’ progress reports, design documents, presentations and launch results.

The jury members are:

- Marianne Moen, Norwegian Space Centre

- Torstein Wang, NAROM

- Zahira Servera, ESA Education Office

- Roel Vandeberg, Technical University of Delft

- Hector Salvador, International Astronautical Federation

Over a period of 6 months, the students have built their own small Satellites, called CanSats (in the shape of a soda can. The CanSats will be launched via five intruder rockets to an altitude of 1 km on Tuesday August 17th. The teams will carry out various experiments, such as calculating the variation of Earth’s magnetic field, GPS measurements, tracking the Sun or measuring radiation. Every team is composed by at least 4 students and one teacher; around 80 participants are involved. The students are from the last year of high-school, just before entering university.

The CanSat launches will take place on Tuesday August 17th at Skarsteindalen, a decommissioned military facility located approximately 10 minutes away from Andøya Rocket Range. The prize-giving ceremony will take place on Wednesday August 18th where the three winners of this first edition will receive space related prizes and a trophy. More information about the CanSat competition and other CanSat activities in Europe can be found on the website: www.cansat.eu

A few days after landing in Northern Canada the SURECA balloon payload was successfully recovered by hans Arne Eilertsen and Jan Arne Søreng from Andøya Rocket Range. The rescued instruments are now back in Resolute Bay where they are prepared for shipment to Italy.

At 09:00 today, June th 2010 this years European Space Camp was officially opened by Marianne Aasen, a member of the Norwegian Parliament since 2005 and leader of Church, Education and Research Parliament Committee.

The European Space Camp is a week-long summer camp for young scientists (17-20 years old) at Andøya Rocket Range in Northern Norway. Organised by the Norwegian Association of Young Scientists and the Norwegian Centre for Space-related Education (NAROM), in cooperation with the Norwegian Space Centre and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Andøya Rocket Range is located in the Northern part of Norway, with unique facilities and laboratories to make the students experience a scientific atmosphere. The camp gathers young participants to learn about rockets and space. The preferred background for the participants are: Youths 17-20 years old and students at a high school or secondary school with emphasis on mathematics and physics.

This year the camp has participants  from 7 nations; Norway, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany and United Kingdom.

Ifm dagens “Åpen Dag” ved Andøya Rakettskytefelt ble det sendt opp et adressert kosedyr i en værballong. De besøkende ble bedt om å tippe kosedyrets landingssted etter at ballongen hadde sprukket. Dette ville finne sted rundt 2 timer etter slipp. Den som kom nærmest med sitt tips var 9 år gamle Johannes Hagerup Nilsen. Premien utleveres i resepsjonen i Oksebåsen.

Etter 103 minutters tid endte ballongen sin ferd i havet litt nord for Andenes etter en flytur opp til nesten 27000 meters høyde.

Gratulerer så mye, Johannes.

The SURECA_BIT_IO campaign is an Italian stratospheric balloon project funded and managed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). A joint team of ASI and Andøya Rocket Range (ARR) performs the operational part of the project.  This part of the project consists of launch preparations and launch operation of a 32 000 m3 balloon from the Nobile/Amundsen Stratospheric Balloon Center (N/A SBC) at Svalbard, Norway. The N/A SBC is a joint venture between Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Andøya Rocket Range (ARR).

Purpose of the campaign The purpose of SURECA _BIT_IO flight is to test a new IRIDIUM based telemetry system called BIT (Bidirectional Iridium Telemetry) and to perform scientific measurements with a piggy-back scientific instrument package called CZT. BIT (developed and produced by LEN s.r.l.) is a system to be used on board stratospheric balloons; its design allows interface with one or more intelligent I/O units, like scientific instrumentation provided by users. BIT provides any remote control thought any available satellite system using a specific data modem. The BIT system is easily adaptable to all modems that are AT command compatible up to bit-rate of 38400 bps without any H/W changes. CZT is a scientific instrument containing:

• A high energy radiation detector based on a CZT sensor made by IMEM/CNR- Parma, using material developed and built by the same group
• an interface module producing an RS232 data stream that could be direct1y connected to one of the BIT serial port.

The main purposes of the flight of the CZT system are:

• To determine the count rate from 30 to several hundred keV of X/gamma and charged particles as a function of latitude, longitude and altitude – and
• to verify the performance and the robustness of CZT sensors developed entirely with Italian technology in a pseudo space environment and to assess their suitability for the realization of space compact radiation monitors.

Campaign  operations The campaign preparations started on June 1, 2010 and the launch window opened at June 11. The first 6 days of the launch window was characterized of to high ground winds for balloon operation. However, on June 17, the weather changed to the better and during the evening it was decided to start the launch operation. The balloon was successfully launch at 20:30 UTC. The joint ASI/ARR team performed an excellent launch operation and also the new launch equipment performed excellent. The balloon ascent was nominal and the balloon established a float altitude of approximately 39 km. The onboard instrumentation as well as the telemetry systems onboard and on ground performs perfectly. After a flight duration of 72 hours and 31 minutes, flight termination was performed in accordance with the recovery strategy for the project. The payload landed in parachute on the southern part of Ellesmere Island in the Nunavut territory in the Northern Canada  46 minutes after the Flight termination command was sent to the balloon. Remaining now is the recovery of the balloon and the payload. The field operation to recover the payload and balloon in Northern Canada will be performed by ARR personnel.

I forbindelse med Andøya Airshow 2010 vil Andøya Rakettskytefelt avholde “Åpen Dag” den 27.6.Arrangementet omfatter også ALOMAR observatoriet på Ramnan. Det blir satt opp maxi-taxi i Bjørndalen som kan kjøre folk opp og ned. Også NAROM, Nasjonalt Senter for Romrelatert Opplæring deltar med rakettverksted for ungene, ballongslipp med merket teddybjørn og gjettekonkurranse vedrørende landingssted for bamse. NAROM vil også foreta demonstrasjon av en hybrid rakettmotor. Programmet  for Andøya Rakettskytefelt ifm Andøya Airshow ser slik ut: Fredag 25.6 1600 – 1800 Stand i værret med info om Åpen Dag ARS 27.6 Lørdag 26.6 1100 – 1500 Stand på flystasjonen under flystevnet Søndag 27.6 1200 – 1600 Åpen Dag ARS, ALOMAR og NAROM 1200 – 1600 Personell i launch control og launchområdet for publikum 1200 – 1600 Salg av kaffe, vafler og brus. Gratis saft til ungene 1200 – 1600 Åpen resepsjon med salg av T-skjorter, bøker etc 1200 -1600 Video i oppholdsrommet på storskjerm 1230 – 1500 Maxi-Taxi i Bjørndalen for transport til ALOMAR (1230, 1300, 1330, 1400, 1430 og 1500) 1530 Demo av hybrid rakettmotor (Oppmøte i resepsjonen) 1230 Omvisning ARS (1230, 1330 og 1430. Oppmøte i resepsjonen) 1300 / 1500 Rakettverksted ved NAROM (Oppmøte i resepsjonen) 1400 Slipp av ballong med adressert bamse. Gjettekonkurranse om landingssted. Vises på skjerm i oppholdsrommet. (Oppmøte i resepsjonen) 1430 Statisk display og omtale av ubemannet fly fra selskapet ARANICA Linker til websider ifm Andøya Airshow:

• Andøya Airshow offisiell web
• Andøya Airshow på Facebook

Recently, Andøya Rocket Range participated in the 4th French-Norwegian Space Forum which was organized by GIFAS (French Aerospace Industries Association), CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) and NIFRO (Norwegian Industrial Forum for Space Activities).

The first day with presentations by companies from both countries was followed by a second day with B2B-meetings at IAS (Institut Aéronautique et Spatial).

France and Norway have good and long traditions for cooperation on space related activities. Not least within the framework of the European Space Agency, but certainly also on a bilateral basis. The purpose of this Space Forum  and the existing framework agreement is to provide an excellent base towards an even closer cooperation.

Five high schools from Norway met at Andøya to participate in a national Cansat competition.

A Cansat is a small payload designed to fit inside the volume of a soda can. The winning team from the high school at Heimdal had GPS tracking as well as an instrument to measure the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The team also built a chassis from aluminium and plexiglass.

The price of 10,000 NOK from NAROM, Norwegian Space Centre and the Norwegian Centre for Science Education is to be used to by the high school to promote science related activities.

The next Cansat-competition from Andøya will take place in August when the European Space Agency invites participants from 12 nations to compete.

More at NAROM (Norwegian text only): Heimdal videregående vant nasjonal cansat-konkurranse

Drones fitted with on board air particle sampling instruments can provide precise measurements of volcanic ash particle concentrations.

“We can have an ash particle sampler in the air in about two weeks,” says Norut Senior Research Scientist Rune Storvold.

The scientist is waiting for new particle sampling instruments, which are on their way north. The drones – or unmanned aircraft system (UAS) – are ready to take-off at short notice.

“Norut in collaboration with the Andøya Rocket Range has the infrastructure, competence and sensors ready to measure the properties of the volcanic ash clouds,” says Storvold.

Large range

The UAS developed at Norut Tromsø is today operated by Aranica. They are ready at the rocket range in Andøya and can make test sampling flights in early May.

The current UAS has a range of 500 km, while a new UAS is currently under development and later this year the range of the remote-controlled aircraft will be extended to 2000 km. This is equivalent to a return flight from Tromsø to Oslo.

“These drones can fly up to an altitude of 10,000 feet, but we also have plans in collaboration with Robot Aviation for a new one that can fly at an altitude of 40,000 feet,” says Storvold. “This will cover the entire normal altitude for commercial air traffic. One of the new drones will be ready for flights with particle samplers in about 12 months.”

Measuring the ash cloud’s properties

The in-situ measurements will be able to assist today’s models with knowledge about the density, size, composition and horizontal and vertical distribution of the volcanic ash concentrations, as well as their lifespan in the atmosphere.

This knowledge can enhance the accuracy of the model’s concentrations. When the margins of uncertainty in the models drop, smaller areas of the air space will be closed and the duration of these closures will become shorter.

Today’s models are extremely good for calculating the extensiveness of the volcanic ash, but provide very uncertain information about the properties of the volcanic ash concentrations. Naturally enough, the quality of the data one gets from a model depends on the quality of the data one inputs in the model. This forces the authorities to put in large safety margins.

More precise knowledge about the volcanic ash particles will lead to huge financial savings by regular air traffic. It can also save lives by making air ambulances and rescue services more operative.

“This can be an area which will provide major social gains,” says Norut CEO Ivan C. Burkow.

Friendly drones

Norut has been working on the development of drones and sampling instruments since 2005. Many associate drones with acts of war, but we are referring here to “friendly drones”, which are used for environmental surveillance and civil preparedness and safety.

The drones can for instance be used to chart oil spills, for search and rescue work over ocean areas, measurements of glaciers and sea ice and measurements in the atmosphere.

Norut is participating in a research group that is already using the drones to measure the effect of soot in the atmosphere. The research group is currently developing a series of instruments for the drones, ranging from soot particle samplers to imaging radar. These projects are mostly financed by the Research Council of Norway.

These drones will not be grounded by ash as they can fly when no other aircraft should fly. The UAS is remote-controlled and can tolerate some ash dust and high levels of turbulence, and it is powered by an economical little petrol motor.

Contact

Senior Research Scientist Rune Storvold, Norut Tromsø

CEO Ivan C. Burkow, Norut

Aranica has proposed to use unmanned aircraft equipped with instruments capable of measuring airborne particles to provide more accurate measurements of the ash clouds from the Icelandic volcano.

- We can have a system in the air in about two weeks, says Rune Storvold, a scientist working at Aranica-partner Norut.

- Norut and Andoya Rocket Range have both the infrastructure and the knowledge and the sensors to measure properties of ash clouds.

The current UAS – fleet have a range of 500 kilometers, but a new generation under development will have a range of 2,000 kilometers, which means that the planes can travel from Tromso to Oslo and back without refueling, covering most of Norway.

The unknown properties of the ash clouds forces the authorities to include huge safety margins when they decide wether or not to close the airspace. – While the larger airplanes are grounded, our UAS can take to the air and perform measurements, says managing director at Andoya Rocket Range, Odd Roger Enoksen.

- With the UAS airborne and by using the ALOMAR lidar observatory we can safely measure the amount of ashes.

- The combined efforts of Andoya Rocket Range and Norut may save the society for large sums of money, says Norut CEO, Ivan C. Burkow. It may also save life by making the air ambulance and rescue services more available.

Point of Contact

Gunnar Jan Olsen,
managing director, Aranica AS
gunnar@rocketrange.no
Telephone: +47  93 05 16 80