REXUS/BEXUS Areas of investigationREXUS/BEXUS Cumulative geographical distribution of participants.
REXUS/BEXUS (Rocket Experiments for University Students / Balloon Experiments for University Students) programme allows students from universities and higher education colleges across Europe to carry out scientific and technological experiments on sounding rockets and balloons.
Each year, two rockets and two balloons are launched carrying up to 20 experiments designed and built by student teams.
The REXUS/BEXUS programme is realised under a bilateral Agency Agreement between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). The Swedish share of the payload has been made available to students from other European countries through a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). EuroLaunch, a cooperation between the Esrange Space Center of SSC and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) of DLR, is responsible for the campaign management and operations of the launch vehicles. Experts from DLR, SSC, ZARM and ESA provide technical support to the student teams throughout the project. REXUS and BEXUS are launched from SSC, Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.
2017 is the 10th Anniversary of the REXUS/BEXUS programme which started with REXUS 5/6 and BEXUS 6/7. However first BEXUS (I-V) balloons were launched prior the creation of the programme in its current form through a cooperation between SSC Esrange and the Department of Space Science at Kiruna Space and Environment Campus. First REXUS flight was in 1995 with the GPS-Orion-Rocket renamed REXUS by the students. This name was in fact inspired by MAXUS and TEXUS sounding rockets. Then the second REXUS was launched 9 years later! Actually it was the first EuroLaunch project and was successfully launched in Esrange. Thanks to this success, the flights of REXUS 3 and 4 took place in 2006 and 2008. In the meantime, DLR and SNSB decided to create a cooperation in student rocket and balloon activities. The agreement was signed in 2007 during the 18th PAC Symposium, it was the beginning of the REXUS/BEXUS adventure!
In 10 years 147 experiments were launched involving more than 1200 students from all over Europe (majority were from Germany and Sweden). The experiments investigates different scientific areas such as Atmospheric Research, Radiation Physics, Deployment Systems, Control Systems, Communication, Fluid Physics...
REXUS - Rocket EXperiments for University Students
REXUS rockets are launched from Esrange on an annual basis (nominally 2 rockets each spring), with full recovery and return of the experiment hardware to the students.
Type: Spin-stabilized rocket, powered by an Improved Orion motor
EXPLORE(EXPeriment for Liquid On-orbit REfueling) - GERMANY
REMOS(REcession MOnitoring System) - GERMANY
REXUS 10
FOCUS(First Orbital Curing experiment of University Students) - GERMANY
GaGa(Granular Anisotropic GAses) - GERMANY
M-BEAM(Magnetic BEAring for brushless DC Motor) - AUSTRIA
SQUID(Spinning QUad Ionospheric Deployer) - SWEDEN
REXUS 11
GGES(Gravity Gradient Earth Sensor) - SWITZERLAND
RAIN(Rocket deployed Atmospheric probes conducting Independent measurements in Northern Sweden) - SWEDEN
Telescobe 2(Demonstration of a new telescopic boom system) - IRELAND
CaRu(Experiment on Capillarity under microgravity shown with Runge pictures) - GERMANY
ADIOS(Advanced Isolation on Sounding Rockets) - GERMANY
REXUS 12
Suaineadh(Deployment and stabilisation of a spinning net) - SWEDEN
REDEMPTION(REmoval of DEbris using Material with Phase Transition: IONospherical tests) - ITALY
SOMID(Solid-borne Sound Measurement for the Independent Detection of Events on Space Vehicles) - GERMANY
SPACE(Suborbital Particle Aggregation and Collision Experiment) - GERMANY
REXUS 13
CERESS(Compatible and Extendable REXUS Support BuS) - GERMANY
MUSCAT(MUltiple Spheres for Characterisation of Atmospheric Temperature) - SWEDEN
SOLAR(SOLdering Alloys in Reduced gravity) - SWEDEN
StrathSat-R(Investigation into the use of two Cubesat-based deployable inflatable structures, including: a solar sail and a dynamic structure that adapts to varying conditions) - UK
REXUS 14
CAESAR(CApillarity-based Experiment for Spatial Advanced Research) - SWITZERLAND
EDoDSpaceSailors(Experimental Deployment of a Dragsail) - GERMANY
Gekko(Measurement of the variation in electric conductivity with altitude) - HUNGARY
PoleCATS(POLar test of the Conceptial and Tiny Spectrometer) - UK
ISAAC(Infrared Spectroscopy to Analyse the upper Atmosphere’s Composition) - SWEDEN
MEDUSA(MEasurement of the D-region plasma USing Active falling plasma probes) - GERMANY
StrathSat-R(Investigation into the use of two Cubesat-based deployable inflatable structures, including: a solar sail and a dynamic structure that adapts to varying conditions – Reflight) - UK
REXUS 16
CWIS(Chemical Waves in Soret Effect) - ITALY/BELGIUM
HORACE(HORizon ACquisition Experiment) - GERMANY
LOW Gravity(Laser Ouput Welding in microGRAVITY) - UK
MOXA(Measurements of Ozone and oXygen in upper Atmosphere) - GERMANY
REXUS 17
SCRAP(SCattering of Radar waves on Aerosols in Plasmas) - SWEDEN
WUSAT-2 SOLSPEC (Cubesat-based transit spectroscopy – Measuring the Sun’s spectrum at different atmospheric path lengths as an analogy to the study of exoplanet atmospheres) - UK
REM-RED(GM Sounding Rocket Experiment to Measure the Cosmic Radiation and Estimate its Dose Contribution) - HUNGARY
REXUS 18
ACTOR(Aerogel Cells Tested On REXUS) - GERMANY
LICOD(Light-induced compression of dust clouds) - GERMANY
MONSTA(Measurement Of Neutrons with Scintillators in The Atmosphere) - GERMANY
TECHDOSE(Development of a Complex Balloon Technology Platform for Advanced Cosmic Radiation and Dosimetric Measurements) - HUNGARY
BEXUS 15
AMES(Atmospheric Magnetic and Electric field Sensor) - FRANCE
BioDos(Continuous measurement of the change of UV radiation in dependence of altitude – Testing new method of measuring effects of UV radiation on biological systems) - HUNGARY
MISSUS(Meteorological Integrated Sensor SUite for Stratospheric analysis) - ITALY
SolSpecTre(Measurement of Solar Spectrum) - GERMANY
BEXUS 16
DAEMON(DNA Adverse Effect Monitoring) - HUNGARY
FLASH(Fluid Lab in the Stratosphere) - GERMANY
iSEDE(Inflatable Satellite Encompassing Disaggregated Electronics) - UK
BEXUS 17
ARCADE-R2(Autonomous Rendezvous Control and Docking Experiment – Reflight 2) - ITALY
TORMES(Topography from Reflectometric Measurements: an Experiment from Stratosphere) - SPAIN
BEXUS 18
A5-Unibo(Advanced Atmospheric Aerosol Acquisition and Analysis) - ITALY
AFIS-P(Antiproton Flux In Space – Prototype) - GERMANY
ARCA(Advanced Receiver Concepts for ADS-B) - GERMANY
COUGAR(COntrol of Unmanned Ground vehicle from higher Altitude in near Real time) - GERMANY
POLARIS(POLymer-Actuated Radiator with Independent Surfaces) - ITALY
BEXUS 19
ADAM(Angular Distribution of charged particles, Atmosphere Measurement) - GERMANY
GranaSAT(Attitude control for a microsatellite based in a Star Tracker, and Earth’s magnetic field measurements) - SPAIN
TamaOS(Monitoring of ozone and oxygen concentrations with miniaturized solid state sensors) - GERMANY
TORMES 2.0(TOpography from Reflectometric Measurements: an Experiment from Stratosphere) - SPAIN
BEXUS 20
COSPA(Collection Of Stratospheric aerosol PArticles for a better understanding of the development of Polar Stratospheric Clouds) - GERMANY