During flight, a sounding rocket is subject to a unique environment - severe vibrations and substantial heat flux. In order to design payloads, precise measurement of these conditions is required. This paper presents preliminary results from HEDGEHOG REXUS Project, whose scientific goal was to characterise the thermal and dynamic environment of REXUS sounding rockets. For this purpose, two new sensors have been designed - mechanical...

As access to space conditions becomes more available, both technically and economically, scientists' interest in launching finer and more sophisticated experiments grows. This applies now more than ever to fragile by nature biological and chemical experiments. To be qualified for launch, such experiments need to be carefully tested prior to the event. The tests should represent actual launch conditions as closely and in as detailed...

In this paper we propose HEDGEHOG (High-quality Experiment Dedicated to microGravity Exploration, Heat flow and Oscillation measurement from Gdańsk) REXUS experiment to investigate vibrational and heat flow phenomena during the whole (ascent, microgravity phase, descent and recovery) flight of a sounding rocket. First, a proposed system of cantilever beams is discussed to study dynamic behaviour of dummy payload. Dimensioning has...