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Rocket Summer

 

zuni

Touchdown: the Zuni rocket hits ground in the Australian desert

Students from the University of Kent launched their final year project into space, as a contribution to research into future missions to Mars. The group, members of the Mars Impactor Science Trial (MIST) team, travelled to Woomera, South Australia, to launch an experimental payload on board an Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI) Zuni rocket.

The students, studying Physics with Space Science and Systems, were challenged with designing, building and testing a rocket payload as the culmination of their four-year degree. They chose to test ideas that could be used in low-cost Mars exploration missions.

Team member Chris Goff explained: “We were supplied with an ex-military air-ground missile motor, called a Zuni rocket, and our task was to develop a payload for it, for launch in July 2001. We decided to build a probe for sub-surface, rather than atmospheric, measurements much like some of the planned future Mars missions. This was perfect for a launch in South Australia, because the desert is comparable to the known Martian environment.

“The probe is designed to measure the temperature in the soil; a tilt meter, which records the tilt of the probe once it is at rest, allows us to establish the temperature profile more accurately. Temperature readings can be compared to scientific models and may give clues to signs of life under the surface. We also added a force sensor which will give us an idea of how hard it hit the ground, and this may tell us a little about the surface composition. Although these measurements are not difficult to make in Australia, they are on Mars; so, to make it more realistic, we added a transmitter that will mimic a system that could be used on a Mars mission. Also, it allows us to recover the probe.”

The probe, or penetrator, was made as a single unit that could be attached to the standard Zuni rocket. If everything went to plan, the penetrator, weighing about 7kg, would be released once the rocket reached apogee (its highest point), and would then fall to ground with the aid of a small parachute.

Rodney Buckland, the students’ supervisor, previously worked in Woomera, as a NASA scientist, during the Apollo lunar landings and the Mariner missions to Mars. He was no less excited by July’s more modest launch. He said: “Kent students are the only ones in the UK to have the opportunity to design, build and test a rocket payload as part of their final-year project.”

The Woomera launch, scheduled for July 1st, consisted of eight Zuni rockets, carrying instruments from the Lunar and Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, and the Planetary Sciences Research Institute at the Open University. The rockets blasted off to a height of 5.9 kilometres in 40 seconds, with a force of 55G, before releasing their attached probes.

Chris Goff, after the successful launch, said: “This type of project has never been attempted before by undergraduate students and I feel very proud to have been part of something so revolutionary. It’s very exciting.”