camp2023-57093-eng-Bits_and_Bytes_in_Microgravity_opus.srt

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 [MUSIC]

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 [MUSIC]

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 Okay, we probably all had our fair share of experiments, right?

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 Maybe technical experience with some device, maybe some cooking experience,

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 or other substances, whatever.

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 Dying nodes, always experimental.

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 And yeah, but all those experiments have taken place in standard atmosphere, of course.

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 And maybe with no acceleration, just being there on Earth.

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 But what if you could change that?

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 Okay, you know, our next speakers, Martin and Jean-Claude,

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 working as computer scientists and mechanical electrical engineers

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 at the German Aerospace Center, DLR.

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 They will show us how to undertake experiments under microgravity conditions,

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 or with the extreme acceleration of hypersonic rockets.

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 Please give a warm welcome to Martin and Jean-Claude.

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 [APPLAUSE]

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 Thank you very much.

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 Thank you very much.

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 Hi, I'm Martin.

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 This is Jean-Claude.

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 Hi.

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 And yeah, we'd like to present to you bits and bytes in microgravity insights

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 into the hard and software of sounding rockets.

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 Yeah, so let's start a little bit about the DLR in general.

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 So the German Aerospace Center, DLR, is a research facility in Germany,

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 one of the biggest with approximately 10,000 employees across 58 institutes

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 and facilities at 30 sites, as you can see here in the picture on the right side.

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 And we work in one institute in DLR.

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 And in one department there called Moraba,

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 which is basically in English a mobile rocket base.

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 And this is, yeah, the base for the rocket base is in Oberfaffenhofen near Munich,

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 which is on the bottom right on the map.

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 And currently we are on the bottom top, as you can see.

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 Yeah, this is DLR in general.

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 But what is Moraba doing?

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 So basically what we are doing is we develop, build, and fly customized sounding rockets.

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 This means we customize sounding rockets for institutional research within DLR,

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 for example, material science, but also for industrial partners.

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 And we customize rockets for their experiments and their payloads.

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 And in addition, we also do some balloon experiments.

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 So, and this especially means that we build rocket vehicles,

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 payload support systems, and ground support systems.

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 Some facts about Moraba.

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 So since like 50 to 55 years, we had 550 plus launches with 30 different vehicles.

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 The heaviest of them weighed about seven metric tons.

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 And they started from about 20 launch sites on Earth.

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 So everywhere on Earth basically.

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 And yeah, we cover research fields from astronomy, aeronomy, microgravity, hypersonics.

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 And there's also student programs for student education.

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 So if you are a student, you can also build rockets and fly them at Moraba,

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 or together with Moraba actually.

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 And we also do technical demonstrations.

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 And yeah, of course, security and defense-related research is also involved.

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 So the first question here is, and this is basically the outline of the presentation,

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 is what is required to fly a sounding rocket or to operate a sounding rocket?

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 And it all starts with mission management and range coordination.

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 And then we go over to electrical and mechanical manufacturing,

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 as well as assembly integration and test.

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 And from there on, we have a full rocket.

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 And we can talk about the launch campaign itself.

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 And then of course, we have post-flight analysis for scientists and for ourselves, right?

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 So much for the outline.

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 So when we start a new campaign or a new mission, basically,

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 we first talk with our stakeholders and partners about the mission profile in general.

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 And basically, we cover two, actually three types of flight profiles.

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 And you can see in the picture on the right, this is on the first...

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 Firstly, it's hypersonic flight.

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 So you can see it's a rather shallow flight there,

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 because basically there, the interest is in speed and the effects.

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 And then we have somewhere in between the student program,

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 which is similar to the actual atmospheric physics and microgravity research,

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 which is basically the top trajectory, which is really high.

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 And there we have microgravity basically for about six minutes.

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 These are the two types, hypersonic flight and microgravity flights with rockets.

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 So once we've talked with our partners about the mission profile in general

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 and what we wanted to cover, what we wanted to do,

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 we can go to the vehicle selection.

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 So there's a whole set of vehicles.

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 That's basically a combination of different motors or solid rocket motors mostly.

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 And then of course, the payload, which is a little bit different every time.

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 When we fly a rocket.

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 So from left to right, you basically have small apogee, small rocket,

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 and to the right you have an orbital rocket,

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 which is in general able to fly into orbit with a small payload.

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 Once we've selected a vehicle for the mission profile,

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 we have to select a proper site for the flight in general.

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 And what you can see here is basically all the locations we have launched a rocket from.

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 The yellow locations here are the locations that are used frequently.

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 These are Kiruna in Sweden and Andernes in Norway, then also Spitsbergen, Norway.

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 And there's one site in Brazil and one site in Australia.

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 So from here on, we now have a whole plan.

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 We now know what we wanted to do.

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 And it's time to talk a little bit about how to build the rocket in general.

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 And I think that's the first time we switch.

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 So the rocket itself is divided into different sections.

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 First, we have the launch segment on the left.

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 The launch services are responsible for the aerodynamics, for the trajectory,

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 and for the decision on which engine we use.

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 Then we have the mechanical flight systems.

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 They do almost every structural thing,

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 like the hull, fins, the nose cone, the bulkheads, the insides, everything we need.

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 But they do also the recovery.

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 For the parachute, we come back to that later.

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 Then we have the data handling.

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 That's where we're from.

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 Data handling is what it says.

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 The experiment sends data from the inside the payload,

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 and we transmit it and distribute it on the ground.

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 Then we have control and instrumentation.

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 Some flights, especially the microgravity flights,

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 they have a cold gas thruster system to reduce movement during the micro-gea phase.

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 They're responsible for that.

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 And then we have the telemetry and tracking station.

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 They track the rocket during the flight with an antenna

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 and receive the telemetry or send the telecommand if necessary.

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 So that's all the departments.

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 You can see what a rocket can look like.

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 This is the VSB-30 vehicle.

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 From left to right, you have the booster, where is S-31,

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 and then the second stage, and then you have the payload.

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 The three modules on top are the recovery system and the motor adapter.

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 Then we have the rate control system and the attitude control system.

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 That's where the cold gas thrusters are.

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 And then the service module, of course, where everything comes together.

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 Since we're from the data handling group, we're responsible for the service module.

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 The service module is kind of modular.

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 So the experiments say, "We need that data rate, and we'd like to have so many power connections."

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 And we say, "Okay, we can do that for you."

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 We also have the batteries.

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 Then the experiment says, "Okay, we have, for example, 10 megabits of data,

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 and we'd like to transmit it to ground, and then we decide how to do it."

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 So the experiments are happy.

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 This is an explosion view.

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 It's a little bit crowded, but just short.

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 This is our largest service module we can offer.

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 You can decide on the national measurement unit, depending on your trajectory,

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 if you need very precision or not.

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 Then on the left, we have the e-box.

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 This is the brain from the service module.

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 There comes everything together.

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 And on the right, we have some GPS receivers.

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 And on the bottom, the telemetry transmitters or telecommand receivers.

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 And all of that, you can see, or most of that is built in-house, mechanics, PCBs,

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 wiring harness.

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 Yes.

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 And talking about the brain from the service module, the e-box,

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 has the multifunction card inside where it's basically the CPU,

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 where everything runs together.

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 And Martin will tell you some details about the MFC2.

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 Yeah, talking about the brain of the system,

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 having the multifunction card second generation here.

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 So this is the MFC2G, as we call it.

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 It basically is a processor, a dual-core Blackfin 561 with 500 MHz,

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 and also an FPGA Cyclone III.

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 You can see that it only has 64 megabytes of SD-ROM and 2 megabytes of DS-ROM.

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 So this hardware is about 10 years old.

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 And currently, actually this year, or in two or three weeks,

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 we started to design the next generation

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 computer or module, service module, actually the whole service module.

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 This also includes the redesign and new design of these circuit cards.

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 But coming back to the current generation,

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 currently we can support 16 422 serial ports and RS 424 eight times.

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 Then we have two CAN bus.

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 We have an Ethernet 10 to 100 base T possibility as a downlink from the experiments.

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 Then we have two GSMK modems for the telemetry inside so that we can send the data during flight,

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 which is coming basically from the experiments via serial.

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 So the next generation basically will use mostly, or this is our idea,

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 will use mostly Ethernet, of course, going a little bit more into the modern area here.

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 Nevertheless, we also have an FPGA which does a lot of work in the background.

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 For example, evaluating flags and stuff so that the CPU does not have to deal with it.

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 We also have an SD card on board here, a mass storage device.

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 That is basically for backup, meaning if we are not able to receive data,

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 via telemetry, for whatever reason, we also have a backup on an SD card from the experiments

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 from all the data that is sent to the ground.

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 This is basically the multifunction card here.

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 Once we've designed or finished the service module,

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 we can go over to the whole testing procedure.

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 We have the service module and then we have also the modules from the experimenters.

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 Then we have to test all of this on the ground before flight, of course.

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 Maybe a little bit to the software, sorry, let me go back again.

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 Just about the software here.

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 So the Blackfin is usually programmed in C++ and Assembler, of course.

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 Then we have the Cyclone processor, which is usually programmed using VHDL for FPGA.

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 I just want to mention that here.

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 If we then assemble the service module and the experiments are ready,

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 and also the mechanical structure is ready, for example, the fins,

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 that are also made in-house, we have to test the whole rocket on ground.

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 One of the first tests we do is basically the air-bearing test.

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 For example, if you have a cold-gas thruster system that controls the rocket in space,

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 we have to make sure that our software pushes the rocket into the right direction.

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 It's a little bit difficult.

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 If you do it wrong in space, yeah, that's too late.

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 So we have to check firstly on ground if all the thrusters work in the correct direction.

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 This is a little video here that shows that.

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 So you can see this is basically lifted by air pressure, the whole structure.

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 The rocket is currently flying basically in simulation mode,

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 and it's moving within the hull.

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 We can check then, okay, it's going into the right direction.

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 It's doing what it's supposed to do.

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 Then also included in this bench test is testing if everything is connected together,

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 if every signal is coming from the experiment to the rocket to the service module.

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 If everything goes to the ground, then we also look into the countdown phase.

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 So how we're supposed to start up the rocket, when we should turn on the batteries, for example,

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 and stuff like that.

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 After all of this, we do a final bench test, which is basically

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 the certificate it's working intended in the plan.

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 Nevertheless, we also do some environmental testing on the rocket.

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 Of course, it's a sounding rocket boosted by solid rocket boosters,

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 so you have a lot of G on the rocket.

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 So we do some shaker tests, which involve sign sweeps on all three axes of the rocket.

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 That basically means, if you basically build together the rocket,

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 then you have some sensors on it, and then you do a frequency measure

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 over some specified frequencies.

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 There's a standard for that.

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 I'm a computer scientist.

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 You know it a little bit better, I guess.

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 But basically what you do is you do a sweep, then you shake the rocket,

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 and then you can take another spectrum.

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 And if it looks different from the first time, you know something is loose inside, maybe a screw.

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 And then you have to take it apart and see what is wrong.

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 Then we also do a center of gravity check so that the rocket is stable in flight.

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 We do moments of inertial measurement and sometimes thermal vacuum testing.

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 Well, and if all this works out, we basically have a completed rocket.

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 For example, some examples here on the side,

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 different vehicles with different payloads, just to see how it could look like.

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 Yeah, so this is then the point where we basically have a completed rocket

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 in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, and then we have to go to the launch site.

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 And it's called Mobile Rocket Base, which basically means we take everything we have,

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 and that's a lot of stuff, like the whole telemetry station, the launcher rack,

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 everything you need to maintain and to fly a rocket, and we take it to the place

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 where it's going to be used for the launch.

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 And we take it to the place where we want to launch the rocket,

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 and we build up the whole mobile infrastructure.

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 And this also includes the electrical ground support equipment, or EGSE as we call it.

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 And this is basically on this little sketch here, it's the things on the right side.

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 So you have the rocket on the left with the service module and the experiments.

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 And then you have a serial connector or more than one serial connector or Ethernet

238
00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:46,960
 going to the service module interface rack, which is basically housed next to the rocket.

239
00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:53,040
 And from there we have Ethernet of fiber or Ethernet wire fiber to the data switching center,

240
00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:58,320
 which is basically also a software, again, written currently in C++

241
00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:02,000
 that is distributing all the data.

242
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:08,800
 So taking the data stream, selecting the data streams, and pushing it to the correct experiments

243
00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:12,240
 or to the scientists and their monitoring stations.

244
00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:16,720
 Because we only push the data through and they have their own monitoring system

245
00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:20,640
 where they can do whatever they like with their data, because that's so different every time.

246
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:27,440
 But we also have, of course, housekeeping of our own system, like temperatures,

247
00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:35,920
 and what is also involved, like position and stuff like gyroscope, accelerator, you name it.

248
00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:43,760
 And then, of course, we have an Ethernet and fiber also coming into our data switching system.

249
00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:48,720
 So you have the left side to the service module interface rack, which is basically the connection

250
00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:50,160
 while the rocket is on ground.

251
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:55,200
 And then you have the telemetrications which feed the data in when the rocket is in flight.

252
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:58,720
 So this is also then built up on ground.

253
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:05,280
 And in parallel, basically, we also assemble the whole rocket together again.

254
00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:09,680
 And yeah, prepared for launch.

255
00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:15,040
 For example, the launch services then also attaches the motor and the boosters.

256
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:18,560
 And then it's, that's your part, right?

257
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:20,080
 Excuse me.

258
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:30,720
 Yeah, as you can see on the left, we put all the modules together, check that every screw is tight,

259
00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:35,280
 check that there are no loose parts, no loose cables.

260
00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:37,440
 We tighten everything.

261
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,960
 Sometimes a little bit tedious, but it's necessary.

262
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:45,840
 And then when it's all done, we have the so-called rollout, as you can see in the right picture,

263
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,880
 where the complete vehicle is rolled out to the launching side.

264
00:21:52,880 --> 00:22:00,800
 At the launching side, as you can see here, the rocket will be

265
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:06,400
 slided onto the beam and then all the electrical connections are done.

266
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:08,480
 They are called umbilicals.

267
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:13,200
 They need to be rigged in some special way.

268
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,240
 So after liftoff, they get pulled away from the rocket.

269
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:23,520
 So the connectors and cables either won't fly with the rocket, which is bad, and also don't hit the fins,

270
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:26,080
 which is also bad.

271
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:30,240
 So you need to have, you need to take special care.

272
00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:32,880
 But then it looks something like that.

273
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:38,560
 And on the right picture, you can see the lifted rocket on the launcher.

274
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:45,600
 It's inside a building and then the building opens and the rocket goes outside.

275
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,240
 And ready for launch.

276
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:56,480
 Then, for example, we have here more details on the flight trajectory.

277
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:58,240
 This is a macro gravity flight.

278
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:01,440
 It's a little bit thin on the beamer, but hey.

279
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:07,040
 You have to launch on the left side where the booster is ignited.

280
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:13,360
 Then you have the, after the booster is burnt out and it's gone,

281
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:16,720
 we ignite the second stage.

282
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:21,440
 And after the second stage burnt out, we separate the payload.

283
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:25,440
 So there are no, it's just the payload floating in space.

284
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:31,520
 And then depending on the weight, of course, we have like five to 10 minutes microgravity

285
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:33,440
 where the experiments will happen.

286
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:39,520
 And after the experiment phase, since we're flying a parabola,

287
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:51,120
 the payload is spun up to induce drag on the system and the atmosphere.

288
00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:52,880
 So it will slow down.

289
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:59,920
 And after a couple meters or seconds or minutes or whatever,

290
00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:03,440
 we start the parachute phase.

291
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,960
 We have two parachutes, a drogue chute and a main chute.

292
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:09,680
 So the vehicle gets slower every time.

293
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:17,440
 And on the last thing is the rocket will smoothly land on the ground.

294
00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:23,040
 And since this is a little bit abstract, we prepared a video for you.

295
00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:27,360
 And this is the launch of MAFOS 5.

296
00:24:27,360 --> 00:24:33,200
 It's a microgravity research for material science.

297
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,080
 And yes, enjoy the flight.

298
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:41,680
 [Music]

299
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:43,680
 Get in.

300
00:24:44,400 --> 00:25:06,800
 [Music]

301
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,280
 Now this is from an inside of the launcher.

302
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:20,880
 [Music]

303
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:22,880
 Turn off thrust side.

304
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,400
 We look to second side.

305
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:43,120
 [Music]

306
00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:48,080
 So this is, yeah, that was just the sound from the ground.

307
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:57,920
 And now the second stage burned out.

308
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:03,040
 And it flies a little bit further.

309
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:09,040
 And then we de-spin it with the yoyo system and separate the payload.

310
00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:13,600
 And now you have five minutes microg and 250 kilometers apogee.

311
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:17,760
 So that was the whole start, right?

312
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:21,280
 So it takes like no cut.

313
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:22,160
 Yeah, no cut.

314
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,040
 Like 20 seconds to space.

315
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:25,540
 Yeah.

316
00:26:25,540 --> 00:26:31,680
 And then after the reentry, experiment phase, we have the reentry phase.

317
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:36,320
 Maybe it's a little bit not so good.

318
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:39,760
 It's the earth in the background here and the payload in front.

319
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:43,760
 And now you can hear the atmosphere coming back in a second.

320
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,280
 So this is the cold-gas thruster, I think, trying to keep it stable.

321
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:49,600
 And now you hear the little tone.

322
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:51,520
 This is the atmosphere.

323
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:54,000
 And it's coming fast.

324
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,560
 [laughter]

325
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:26,960
 So the reentry phase takes a little longer, of course, but then you have the parachute phase.

326
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,360
 And if everything went so well, the landing will look like this.

327
00:27:31,360 --> 00:27:54,000
 [

328
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,480
 And there you can see the parachute falling down.

329
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:58,640
 Yes.

330
00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:02,880
 [applause]

331
00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:09,680
 Then after the successful flight, we recover everything with the helicopter.

332
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:12,960
 Here you can see the rocket stuck in the ground.

333
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:14,080
 It's a very nice picture.

334
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:28,000
 And yes, after we recovered the payload, we tried to reuse everything.

335
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:36,880
 So we have rockets that have flown like 10 times and we're using them until they're mechanically

336
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:37,600
 unusable.

337
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:39,200
 So yes.

338
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,840
 And then the complete cycle starts again.

339
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:46,960
 New experiments, new vehicle, new launch campaign.

340
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:49,920
 Thank you very much for your attention.

341
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:55,040
 [applause]

342
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,280
 Thank you very much, Martin and Jean-Claude.

343
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:01,760
 Well, do we have questions?

344
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:03,920
 Yes, we have plenty of time for some questions.

345
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:08,080
 Over there, third row with the head.

346
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:11,600
 Sorry, can you repeat?

347
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:12,640
 There's some...

348
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:13,120
 Mass.

349
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:13,920
 No, no, no, wait, wait.

350
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:15,360
 There's some microphone coming around.

351
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:16,880
 There's already one.

352
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:19,920
 Hi, what's the mass of the payload?

353
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,840
 The mass of the payload depends on the vehicle.

354
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:28,320
 It's between 100 and 500 kilograms, I guess.

355
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,680
 Over there.

356
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:36,560
 Hello.

357
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,080
 Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I don't think I got it.

358
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:42,640
 Why are they called sounding rockets?

359
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:46,560
 Good question.

360
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:47,440
 It's a good question.

361
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:56,960
 I'm not sure if I can answer it correctly because we don't often use the English terms, but it's...

362
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:06,880
 Since the rocket is flying a parabola and it's not going into orbit, it's just

363
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,000
 shortly in the atmosphere.

364
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:18,080
 And sorry, I cannot explain the correct term why it's called sounding rocket.

365
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:23,520
 It's just the English term for, in German, "Höhenforschungsrakete",

366
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:29,120
 which is basically high research rocket or high flying research rocket.

367
00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:32,160
 But yeah, it's just a technical term.

368
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:35,920
 I guess sounding is something like probing, maybe.

369
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:40,320
 So we're probing the atmosphere.

370
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:41,040
 Sorry.

371
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:42,640
 Some nodding here in the audience.

372
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:43,140
 Hi.

373
00:30:43,140 --> 00:30:43,640
 Hi.

374
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:44,140
 Hi.

375
00:30:44,140 --> 00:30:44,640
 Hi.

376
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:45,140
 Hi.

377
00:30:45,140 --> 00:30:45,640
 Hi.

378
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:46,140
 Hi.

379
00:30:46,140 --> 00:30:46,640
 Hi.

380
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:47,140
 Hi.

381
00:30:47,140 --> 00:30:47,640
 Hi.

382
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:48,140
 Hi.

383
00:30:48,140 --> 00:30:48,640
 Hi.

384
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:49,140
 Hi.

385
00:30:49,140 --> 00:30:49,640
 Hi.

386
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:50,140
 Hi.

387
00:30:50,140 --> 00:30:50,640
 Hi.

388
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:51,140
 Hi.

389
00:30:51,140 --> 00:30:51,640
 Hi.

390
00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:52,140
 Hi.

391
00:30:52,140 --> 00:30:52,640
 Hi.

392
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:53,640
 Hi.

393
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:54,140
 Hi.

394
00:30:54,140 --> 00:30:54,640
 Hi.

395
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:55,140
 Hi.

396
00:30:55,140 --> 00:30:55,640
 Hi.

397
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:56,140
 Hi.

398
00:30:56,140 --> 00:30:56,640
 Hi.

399
00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:57,140
 Hi.

400
00:30:57,140 --> 00:30:57,640
 Hi.

401
00:30:57,640 --> 00:30:58,640
 Okay.

402
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:00,640
 How many times that you're doing the testing,

403
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:06,640
 find something that it's so bad that you have to stop everything and start?

404
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,640
 How many times do you find these errors?

405
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:12,640
 Sorry, we cannot understand you to the microphone.

406
00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:14,640
 Maybe you have a second microphone?

407
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:16,640
 It's a technical problem.

408
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:18,640
 It's nothing to do with the microphone.

409
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:20,640
 Maybe you can come over and I repeat the question.

410
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:21,640
 Maybe you can come over here.

411
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:22,640
 Maybe.

412
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:26,640
 If you've got a question, queue up here on the side of the stage.

413
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:28,640
 So we've, yeah.

414
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,640
 How many times when you're doing the testing,

415
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:36,640
 you find something that it's so bad or wrong that you have to stop the whole mission, let's call it, right?

416
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:38,640
 How many times the testing is there?

417
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:40,640
 Never.

418
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:45,640
 Because we have to fly the mission, so we do everything to do it.

419
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:51,640
 So maybe sometimes they're overtime, but all of the time are working.

420
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:52,640
 So.

421
00:31:52,640 --> 00:32:02,640
 Usually you, if there's a problem, of course, usually you shift the schedule a bit, but yeah, not flying.

422
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:03,640
 I don't know.

423
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:04,640
 No.

424
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:06,640
 Not usually, never, yeah.

425
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:14,640
 And they are also not that many problems because they are very proven systems and they fly all the time.

426
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:17,640
 And most of the time everything goes right.

427
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:22,640
 So we tend to do things similar in every mission, in every campaign.

428
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:32,640
 The structural, mechanical parts of the rocket are always built in a similar way or in the same way, standardized way.

429
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:36,640
 Also electronic software, we try to use the heritage.

430
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:37,640
 All right.

431
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,640
 Next question over there with the green shirt.

432
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:46,640
 I think I heard you say you use solid fuel.

433
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:47,640
 Yes.

434
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:50,640
 What is it made of and why are you using solid stuff?

435
00:32:50,640 --> 00:33:00,640
 Because I think I learned that most rockets use liquid fuel or like mixing hydrogen and oxygen.

436
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,640
 Yeah, that's right.

437
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:10,640
 The thing is liquid rockets are very complicated to build and to use.

438
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:15,640
 And also hybrid rockets are a thing, but not very common.

439
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:29,640
 And so let's rocket motors have the great thing that they're very simple to use because you just have to just have to ignite them and they're doing their job.

440
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:35,640
 There's of course more involved into that, but you don't have to fuel the tanks.

441
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:38,640
 You don't have to have some pumps and stuff.

442
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:42,640
 So it's just more easy to use.

443
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:53,640
 Also solid rocket boosters usually have a higher impulse, thrust on ground.

444
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,640
 Coming back to that, how many Gs do you pull when you're going up?

445
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:03,640
 With a liquid you can control that, with solid you can't.

446
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,640
 No, we can't.

447
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:15,640
 It depends on the vehicle of course between 10 or 20.

448
00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:21,640
 So it's a very tough ride.

449
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:24,640
 You wouldn't be sending people up.

450
00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:29,640
 No, no people. Only experiments.

451
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:40,640
 So you mentioned that you were going to redesign the control system for those rockets or upgrade it at least to modern technology.

452
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:46,640
 Also you mentioned that currently it's programmed in C++.

453
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:53,640
 Is it going to stay C++ or are you going to migrate to something like, I don't know, Rust or something like that?

454
00:34:53,640 --> 00:35:03,640
 Actually we are thinking about Rust for example because of the paradigm in the language.

455
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:10,640
 But the problem here is also the manpower and the people who understand this new language.

456
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:18,640
 People with knowledge are limited resource.

457
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:30,640
 But currently the C++ is just because of the real-time OS that is running on the Blackfin processor.

458
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:34,640
 Alright, there are still more questions. Please come up to the microphone.

459
00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:45,640
 More about the software stack. What is the architecture of the Blackfin processor and what kind of operating systems and what kind of libraries are you using there? Any open source stuff?

460
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:51,640
 How is it called? It's an open source real-time Linus Rodos.

461
00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:56,640
 It's called Rodos in an older version.

462
00:35:56,640 --> 00:36:03,640
 But the Blackfin processor is basically a DSP, a signal processor.

463
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:12,640
 But it's running basically Rodos bare on the CPU. So this is the assembler part.

464
00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:20,640
 Hi again. Do you do any pre-flight or in-flight hacking, pen testing, security test, radio or something?

465
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:25,640
 Well, not in-flight. Because it should work in-flight.

466
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:32,640
 So I think the scientists are not happy if you do some pen testing in between. They don't get any data back.

467
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:46,640
 But yeah, of course we thrive to do that. But same problem here. People and resources.

468
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:57,640
 Hi. So in the overview slide, did I get it right that you're developing also?

469
00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:04,640
 Sorry, the microphone went off again. Did I get it right that you're also developing an orbital rocket?

470
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:07,640
 How does it differ from what you currently have?

471
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:20,640
 Yes, there's the cooperation with the Brazilian Space Agency and it's a solid rocket orbital vehicle.

472
00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:26,640
 But it's still under development, so stay tuned.

473
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:31,640
 One more question. I saw in the video that the second stage separated from the payload.

474
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:40,640
 What's the point of that? The payload doesn't have any engine, so you're not taking advantage of the separating of them.

475
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,640
 Is there another reason?

476
00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:57,640
 Let me shortly think about that. We separate the engine from the payload to have the center of gravity within the payload.

477
00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:07,640
 So you don't have any levers pushing on you, of course. Also the mass is reduced, so we don't need that much cold gas and the cold gas thrusters.

478
00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:20,640
 Sometimes the solid rocket motors have a little bit of fuel residue inside that maybe gasses out and destroys the quality of microgravity.

479
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:29,640
 So you want to get rid of that. Also we don't need the weight on the motor on the parachute.

480
00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:46,640
 This is also something we didn't mention. The microgravity they talk about in the ISS, for example, it's not so clean gravity because it's a working machine with people in it.

481
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:59,640
 The rocket has a really close to zero basically. It's a small machine with less vibrations and we have a very high quality of microgravity.

482
00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:07,640
 So you want to get rid of every disturbance around. But sometimes the motor keeps attached, I think. It depends.

483
00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:21,640
 All right, last question please. Hi again. Did you have any attack in flight or pre-flight on the rockets that you can tell us about? Real ones?

484
00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:25,640
 Not that I know about. Thank you.

485
00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:32,640
 All right, thank you very much. Give it up again for Martin and Jean-Claude. Thank you very much for that awesome talk.

486
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:35,640
 [Applause]

487
00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:40,640
 [Music]