ISAAC: a REXUS student experiment to demonstrate an ejection system with predefined direction

ISAAC - Infrared Spectroscopy to Analyse the middle Atmosphere Composition was a student experiment launched from SSC's Esrange Space Centre, Sweden, on 29th May 2014, on board the sounding rocket REXUS 15 in the frame of the REXUS/BEXUS programme. The main focus of the experiment was to implement an ejection system for two large Free Falling Units (FFUs) (240 mm x 80 mm) to be ejected from a spinning rocket into a predefined direction. The system design relied on a spring-based ejection system. Sun and angular rate sensors were used to control and time the ejection. The flight data includes telemetry from the Rocket Mounted Unit (RMU), received and saved during flight, as well as video footage from the GoPro camera mounted inside the RMU and recovered after the flight. The FFUs' direction, speed and spin frequency as well as the rocket spin frequency were determined by analyzing the video footage. The FFU-Rocket-Sun angles were 64.3 degrees and 104.3 degrees, within the required margins of 90 degrees +/- 45 degrees. The FFU speeds were 3.98 m/s and 3.74 m/s, lower than the expected 5 +/- 1 m/s. The FFUs' spin frequencies were 1.38 Hz and 1.60 Hz, approximately half the rocket's spin frequency. The rocket spin rate slightly changed from 3.163 Hz before the ejection to 3.117 Hz after the ejection of the two FFUs. The angular rate, sun sensor data and temperature on the inside of the rocket module skin were also recorded. The experiment design and results of the data analysis are presented in this paper.