First Results of the Fourth Mission to the Stratosphere

Zenaida Alzaga

Following the successful launch of the EMIDSS-4 suborbital module (Experimental Module for the Iterative Design for Satellite Subsystems, version 4) on August 19th, from the Fort Sumner base in New Mexico, United States, aboard the 730 NT platform of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Scientific Balloon Program, specialists from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) and the interinstitutional academic group that participated in the aerospace mission received information from the U.S. agency recorded by the instrument.

Dr. Mario Alberto Mendoza Bárcenas, a researcher at the Aerospace Development Center and lecturer at the Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Mecánica y Eléctrica (ESIME), Zacatenco Unit, reported that, with the support of the NASA program management, they sent the content of the SD memories installed on board the EMIDSS-4 through electronic repositories.

The devices recorded data, as well as the instrument's activity during its launch into the stratosphere, revealing a recording time of approximately 60 hours, of which about 10 correspond to the main stages of the flight: launch, ascent, float, and descent.

Around 50 hours refer to the period during which the U.S. space agency's rescue teams were able to locate and recover the suborbital platform with the module on board in a desert area near Socorro County, New Mexico, United States.

Additionally, the obtained information demonstrates a low performance of the thermal protection used in the engineering model of a CubeSat, which was based on cork, where temperatures close to minus 80 degrees Celsius were reached.

Dr. Mendoza Bárcenas pointed out that the experiment documented the good electronic and mechanical design of the device because the batteries and onboard electronic instrumentation cards continued to operate in freezing conditions.

He added that they also received information on the voltage captured by the solar panels, which showed proper performance during periods when they were irradiated by sunlight. Meanwhile, the ultraviolet radiation (UV-A) sensors performed reasonably well, and their values will have to be referred to medical scales to understand the potential risk of solar radiation on human skin at around 37 kilometers above sea level, where the EMIDSS-4 was in the float phase.

The expert emphasized that there is still a need to analyze the data corresponding to the module developed by the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO) and MIXTLI-1, designed by students and academics from the Unidad Profesional Interdisciplinaria de Ingeniería y Tecnologías Avanzadas (UPIITA), whose solid-state memories will have to be read using special software.

It is expected that the experience could represent an invaluable opportunity to experiment with real aerospace projects.

IPN Prepares for the Fifth Flight to the Stratosphere with NASA

On the other hand, the working group led by the IPN is designing the EMIDSS-5 module (Experimental Module for the Iterative Design for Satellite Subsystems, version 5), which will undergo evaluation by NASA to participate in the agency's Scientific Balloon Program's fall 2024 campaign.

Once again, NASA invited researchers to participate in the upcoming mission next year with the EMIDSS-5, provided they meet the strict technical requirements and standards it demands.

Mendoza Bárcenas anticipated that the design of a platform with a rectangular prism geometry constructed from aluminum profiles is planned, where engineering models of CubeSat-type nanosatellites (10x10x10) will be placed, along with another with dimensions of 10x20x10 focused on recording environmental data and taking photographs.

He mentioned that one of the project's innovations will be the participation of ESIME Zacatenco students with the project called "APEEZ-1" (Polytechnic Space Agency ESIME Zacatenco-1), who will develop a flight computer and thermal protections to be placed inside the module.

Also, UPIITA students with the "Mixtli-2" project are designing a cosmic noise quantification meter, a scientific experiment to recreate an auditory vestibule, as well as evaluate its performance in a near-space environment.

Finally, Dr. Mendoza Bárcenas indicated that the next mission will be led by the IPN, the Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), ITESO, as well as students and researchers from the Politécnico.

Selección Gaceta Politécnica #167. (October 31st, 2023). IPN Imagen Institucional: Read the full magazine in Spanish here