Young Engineers' Satellite 2

The Young Engineers ' Satellite 2 ( YES2 ) is a satellite, which was built on behalf of the ESA Education Office by the company Delta - Utec SRC almost exclusively by students. The 36 kg satellite was launched into space on 14 September 2007 at 11:00 UTC clock from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz-U launch vehicle as part of the Foton -M3 mission.

The YES2 mission, which took place on 25 September 2007, included the unwinding of a so-called Tethers, a 0.5 mm thin and 30 kilometers long rope made of Dyneema synthetic fibers, at the end of the re-entry capsule Fotino was. Fotino to be brought by means of the tether without the usual rocket stages or engines on a re-entry trajectory to land safely in a built-in parachute back into Kazakhstan.

The project

In this project, most of the work were ( such as design, construction and integration) of students and young engineers performed.

In the initial phase, the tasks adjacent to the site of Delta Utec SRC were distributed across five universities. These "Centers of Expertise" were: the University of Kent ( UK), the University of Patras (Greece ), the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy ), the Hochschule Niederrhein in Krefeld ( Germany ) and the State University of Aerospace Samara (Russia). There, the works were each headed by a professor and a total coordinated by Delta - Utec.

In the final phase, work concentrated more and more on the office of Delta - Utec in Leiden (Netherlands) and nearby parts of ESA's ESTEC center in Noordwijk. Where the satellite has been finally assembled and tested for several weeks.

The test campaign included, among other things:

• Detecting the electromagnetic compatibility in the EMC test chamber " Maxwell" of the ETS test center,
• Simulating the space environment in the thermal vacuum chamber,
• To simulate a vibration test on the " shaker table" forces encountered during launch and ensure that the satellite is through this prejudice,
• Functional testing of all components and systems.

Beginning of May 2007 YES2 was handed over to the ESA and sent to TsSKB Progress in Samara (Russia) where the satellite was first bolted in June 2007 for testing purposes with the Russian Foton -M3. After completion of the tests, he was taken separately from Foton -M3 to Baikonur, where all the parts are assembled and were launched on 14 September 2007 into space.

Construction of the satellite

FLOYD

The Foton Located YES2 Deployer ( FLOYD ) is firmly mounted on the Russian Foton -M3 and is home to the majority of the YES2 electronics and also the Tether. FLOYD consists of a hexagonal canister in which the tether is wound on a spool. The electronics are housed in boxes on the one hand above the canister in the " Attic" and on the other in a attached to the side of the canister cube-shaped box, which is called " XBOX ". Above the Attics is the " Ejection System" and the " barber pole ". The barber pole is a brake for the Tether dar. Here, the Tether is with the help of a stepper motor wound as needed with an round, rough rod to brake the Tether by friction.

The Mechanical and data Acquisition Support System (MASS ) is fixed at the beginning of the mission to FLOYD. The free end of the tether is attached here. MASS consists of a round base, a base- mounted cylinder and a cylinder mounted on the funnel. Around the cylinder further boxes are fastened with electronics which control the release of the re-entry capsule.

Fotino

Fotino is about 5.5 kg, spherical capsule composed mainly of silicon, Aluvac, polyurethane and aluminum oxide. She was attached to the mission began in MASS funnel with straps. Inside there are instruments for positioning and communication.

Mission History

On the eleventh day of the twelve day mission Foton -M3 YES2 is enabled, then a Pyrocutter was ignited, which sparked the holding elements between MASS and FLOYD. Three springs digging MASS then away from FLOYD. The Tether which was located between the two elements, wrapped himself slowly from the located inside of FLOYD coil.

After a 3380 m long section of the tether was handled, this was stopped in order to match the MASS- Fotino - team on the landing in Kazakhstan. Then the tether should be unwound to its full length of 30 km. Then MASS / Fotino was in a lower orbit than Foton -M3 and was faster. However, the tether prevented one of which ropes and forces MASS / Fotino to brake and a rear swing movement.

First, it was assumed that the tether was cut even at a length of 8.5 km. However, after evaluation of all flight data, the project team believes that the tether was up to the full length of 31.7 km, ie longer than planned, settled. From the flight data was calculated that Fotino came down near the Aral Sea. The probe has not been found.

After blasting off from Fotino of the Tether was separated on the side of FLOYD and burned up along with MASS in the atmosphere, as well FLOYD together with Foton (except the return capsule ) after the end of the Foton -M3 mission.