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Mars Analog Research Stations Task Force
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German Mars Society's MIRIAM Being Prepared For Launch
During the past week, MIRIAM and its flight system stack were prepared for launch. The flight operations team and the flight support crew arrived in Kiruna along with a number of guests. Until Thursday, the only one missing was MIRIAM herself, who unfortunately got lost during transport from Stockholm to Kiruna. She was finally located in Lulea, safely delivered to ESRANGE and checked out. No transportation damages were found.
The ground station was set up and the system prepared for flight. This
included ironing out a number of non-conformance items that surfaced
late during flight commissioning tests, but luckily, our very capable
software team was able to address them without much ado. Today, the
first full flight simulation test including all ground systems, rocket
payload subsystems and RF com channels were tested without a problem.
The day was topped off by an impressive display of Aurora Borealis.
Pictures can be found on line at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59645&l=a8bd3&id=609087609. Also, a blog with pictures was set up by Iowa State University student and campaign participant Andy Frick.
ARCHIMEDES is an effort to probe the atmosphere of planet Mars by means of a hypersonic drag balloon, a device known as a "ballute". The project is currently under study, proposed and supported by the Mars Society Germany, the Universität der Bundeswehr München, the AMSAT-DL .e.V. organization, the DLR, and several other research institutions and industrial companies. The probe is planned to be integrated into the AMSAT's P5-A Mars satellite, and to be released from the spacecraft when in orbit around the planet. Launch of the P5-A is currently planned for late 2011 as a piggyback payload on an Ariane V rocket, as it is standard practice for spacecraft of the German AMSAT section. It is jointly developed by The Mars Society Germany and several institutes of the University of the Federal Armed Forces of Germany in Munich.
MIRIAM combines all research programs within the ARCHIMEDES development program, and is currently planned for launch to a 200km peak altitude from the SSC ESRANGE rocket test site near Kiruna, North Sweden on top of the REXUS4 sounding rocket managed and built by the DLR Moraba group of Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. MIRIAM's launch is now planned for October 21, 2008.
To obtain more information please feel free to direct inquiries to the German Mars Society - an independent organization affiliated with the International Mars Society - at either hg@marssociety.de or hannes.griebel@unibw.de. More information is also available at the German Mars Society's web site.
The day was topped off by an impressive display of Aurora Borealis.
Pictures can be found on line at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59645&l=a8bd3&id=609087609. Also, a blog with pictures was set up by Iowa State University student and campaign participant Andy Frick.
ARCHIMEDES is an effort to probe the atmosphere of planet Mars by means of a hypersonic drag balloon, a device known as a "ballute". The project is currently under study, proposed and supported by the Mars Society Germany, the Universität der Bundeswehr München, the AMSAT-DL .e.V. organization, the DLR, and several other research institutions and industrial companies. The probe is planned to be integrated into the AMSAT's P5-A Mars satellite, and to be released from the spacecraft when in orbit around the planet. Launch of the P5-A is currently planned for late 2011 as a piggyback payload on an Ariane V rocket, as it is standard practice for spacecraft of the German AMSAT section. It is jointly developed by The Mars Society Germany and several institutes of the University of the Federal Armed Forces of Germany in Munich.
MIRIAM combines all research programs within the ARCHIMEDES development program, and is currently planned for launch to a 200km peak altitude from the SSC ESRANGE rocket test site near Kiruna, North Sweden on top of the REXUS4 sounding rocket managed and built by the DLR Moraba group of Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. MIRIAM's launch is now planned for October 21, 2008.
To obtain more information please feel free to direct inquiries to the German Mars Society - an independent organization affiliated with the International Mars Society - at either hg@marssociety.de or hannes.griebel@unibw.de. More information is also available at the German Mars Society's web site.
