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Bonn, Germany (SPX) Jan 29, 2008 On 31 January and 7 February, two research rockets developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the European Space Agency (ESA) will be launched from northern Sweden. Both organisations are taking their TEXUS (Technologische Experimente unter Schwerelosigkeit, technological experiments in weightlessness) science programmes into a fourth decade. During the parabolic unmanned flights at an altitude of 270 kilometres, weightless conditions prevail for six minutes. During these special conditions, scientists from German universities and industry will find answers to biological, chemistry and physics questions. Altogether six of the planned experiments are led by German scientists. Using data communication from Earth, the experiments are supervised and controlled directly as necessary by the scientists. The devices, housed in a cylindrical, approximately three-metre-long light alloy structure, land about 20 minutes after the launch by parachute.
Metal alloys in weightlessness The levitation device makes it easier to take precise measurements than can be obtained in terrestrial laboratories, as the electromagnetic forces needed for floating of the samples are small. Any disturbance of currents in the liquid metal samples are in this way substantially reduced. The researchers thus obtain highly-precise data - important for improving computer simulations - and help with modern manufacturing processes.
Gravity perception in plants
Fish in freefall The larval stage of a fish called the Cichlid shows a primitive inner-ear configuration and can be considered a model for vertebrate animals. As in past experiments scientists discovered that motion sickness depends on the different mineralisation of otoliths, the TEXUS experiment will see researchers from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim determining to what extent otolith mineralising in different individual fish affects their respective adjustment to weightlessness.
Spray cooling and capillary flow on TEXUS-45 In a third experiment on board TEXUS-45, scientists from ZARM (Zentrums fur angewandte Raumfahrttechnologie und Mikrogravitation; Centre for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity) at the University of Bremen together with colleagues from the Institut de Mecanique des Fluides in Toulouse, will study two-phase flows in capillary channels. The results of this experiment contribute to the answers of fundamental questions within the field of fluid mechanics. Researchers want to discover with more certainty how liquids behave under weightless conditions in order to improve, for instance, the way fuel is supplied from spacecraft and satellites tanks. DLR and ESA have assigned the tasks of both getting TEXUS prepared for launch and post-launch operation to EADS Astrium in Bremen. Kayser-Threde, a firm based in Munich, Germany and DLR's mobile rocket base (MORABA) located in Oberpfaffenhofen are also involved. TEXUS consists of two VSB-30 rockets developed by the Brazilian Space Agencies CTA (Center Tecnico Aerospacial) and IAE (Instituto de Aeron�utica e Espa�o) alongside DLR and SSC, the Swedish Space Corporation. Related Links Swedish Space Corporation SSC Launch Pad at Space-Travel.com
![]() ![]() Russia announced Wednesday it will build a new space center near Uglegorsk, with the launch of booster rockets expected by 2016 and manned flights by 2018. |
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