REXUS-BESPIN

Hello,

My name is Ludvig Sjöberg, and my role in team BESPIN is as a systems engineer. This week I will write about a difficult decision that we had to make recently.

As you all probably know we in the BESPIN team had to make the decision to descope our project and remove our beloved balloon. But a setback does not have to be the end, we in the team have every intention in turning this into something positive.

The decision gave us more time to investigate the reentry part of the experiment. The mechanical team was tasked to come up with a brand-new design with ensured a stable descent through the atmosphere. And they sure work fast!

Within just a week they came up with a completely new design. The space left behind by the helium tank was used to make the decent probe much more aerodynamically stable. This make sure that the probe will not tumble and that the parachutes deploy as expected. We will have also taken the time to investigate the use of more sensors on our experiment to get as much data out of the reentry phase as possible.

 

 

Why do we have all this new data? Well our intention is that the BESPIN project will to die with us leaving the university life. Somewhere out there is a new group of students, ready to take on the project after us (they might just not know it yet). The idea is that we will share all our knowledge we have gathered so far together with the data obtained from our flight in the spring. With all that they can apply for another cycle of the REXUS program and be the ones that finally makes BESPIN fly (well float).

So, if you are a group of students that like balloons and are not too fond of your free time, send us a message. We just might be the perfect match <3

Until next time,

Ludvig Sjöberg