AETHER STUDENT TEAM: THE SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT

STUDENT IN FOCUS

Anyone who thought that the engineering students of the Faculty of Engineering Technology had reached the absolute top with the world title in the World Solar Challenge should revise his/her opinion. A new team has emerged, aiming even higher. Their mission; to build a satellite that can return to Earth in one piece. “A world first,” said Dries Wellens, leader of the Aether Student CubeSat Team.

How do you bring a satellite back to earth in one piece? This question has intrigued Prof. Valentijn De Smedt on Geel Campus for quite some time. In Jurgen Vanhamel, assistant professor of Aerospace at TU Delft, he found an passionate sparring partner. Together, they coach and inspire the Aether Student CubeSat Team that is developing the technology for future re-entry satellites.

The team has six members, all students or recent graduates of Group T Campus. They are following the Postgraduate Tech Innovations in Ventures & Teams, known as a breeding ground for entrepreneurial engineering talent. The team’s mission therefore presupposes not only solid technical knowledge but also creativity, team spirit, perseverance and other qualities that fall under the heading of ‘entrepreneurship’.

Cube sat

“Satellites come in all sizes and weights,” says Dries. “Besides the big rigs, miniature ones are really on the rise. Cube sats are not only cheaper and more accessible to companies and organisations, but can also be deployed faster and more targeted. The standard dimensions are 10x10x10 cm, which is slightly larger than a Rubik cube. The weight is also fixed at 1.33 kg”.

“Because of their small size, cube sats can easily be sent along with the existing large launchers. They are then packed a sealed container, from which they are ejected by a spring system. During resupply flights to the ISS space station, cube sats are almost always carried and deployed. Major players such as NASA and ESA deploy cube stats during missions to Mars or in astrobiological or chemical experiments in space. In fact, it is impossible to imagine modern space travel without cube sats.”

Perspectives

Cube sats may have the wind in their sails, yet none have ever been retrieved back to Earth to date. “Sending satellites into space is indeed easier and cheaper than recovering them,” says Dries. “But that doesn’t stop us from trying anyway. Indeed, we are convinced that returning satellites will open new perspectives for scientific research in space. For numerous experiments, it would be useful if the results could effectively reach researchers on Earth for further follow-up. Moreover, cube sats can also make their own measurements on the composition of the atmosphere during their return journey.”

Which brings Dries to the heart of the AETHER project. “We are not satellite builders. Our core business is to develop the technology needed to return cube sats preserved. As we know, entering Earth’s atmosphere is a perilous undertaking. That means we need to design a heat shield that can prevent the craft from burning up. Furthermore, we must be able to guarantee that the cube sat will land in a safe and easily accessible place after its hellish journey through the atmosphere.”

Ballistic coefficient

As for the heat shield, the task is to keep the so-called ballistic coefficient as low as possible. “That means we need to create as much air resistance as possible that allows the satellite to slow down to eventually land softly,” Dries explains. “This is why we plan to equip the cube sat with an inflatable and expandable heat shield that increases the surface area of the cube many times over and thus creates more drag. Such technology has already been successfully experimented with by NASA and ESA on missions to Mars. But again, there is as yet no application or example for a cube sat”.

The AETHER team’s ambitious space plan is divided into three major subprojects. “The first includes the development of the heat shield and the investigation of launch capabilities,” says Dries. “We are now fully engaged in that until the end of next academic year. This is followed by controlled re-entry and testing out the landing system. So the ‘moment suprême’ is still some time away. Rome and Paris were not built in one day either”.

Yves Persoons

www.aetherspace.be

The Aether Team: front, left to right: Dries Wellens, Marijn Gielen and Witse Janssens Back, left to right: Seppe Craeninckx, Joppe Leers, alumnus Roemer Spreij and Brecht De Vuyst

© Julie Feyaerts