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CU Spaceflight is a student-run society at theUniversity of Cambridge. It is founded with the aim of achieving access tospace, with minimal financial expenses. The society is supported by theCambridge-MIT Institute.[1]
The society was founded in the summer of 2006, with the specific goal of launching arocket into space for less thanGBP£1000.[2]
As of November, 2007, CU Spaceflight has launched five non-crewedhigh-altitude balloons, of which two were not successful:[3] Nova 2 was blown into theNorth Sea and Nova 5 failed to ignite the Martlet 1 solid rocket motor, but landed in a reusable state.
CU Spaceflight is a participant of theUK High Altitude Society.
On 27 June 2007, CU Spaceflight won the Owlstone Photography Prize, having submitted an unenhanced photograph from the Nova 1 flight, displaying the curvature of the Earth as seen fromNear space. The entry was entitled "Earth from 32 km". CU Spaceflight won a cash prize and 25-hours of workshop time.[4]
As of 2007[update], Cambridge University Spaceflight has three projects which it is pursuing; all three are critical to the long-term goal of successfully launching a rocket into space and retrieving it.
Nova is CU Spaceflight's first project and has the objective of launching high-altitude balloons ontest flights tonear space. Thelifting gas used ishelium.
| Mission Name | Launch Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nova 0 | N/A | Prototype for the Nova programme, and never flew, despite being capable of doing so.[5] |
| Nova 1 | 9 November 2006 | Launched fromCambridge, UK. It reached a maximumaltitude of 32 kilometres (105,000 feet) and landed byparachute 3 hours later.[1] Following recovery, 857 still images were downloaded from the on-board cameras.[6] |
| Nova 2 | 19 November 2006 | Thenear spacecraft suffered a mechanical failure and was blown off into theNorth Sea by highwinds. All contact was lost and it has yet to be recovered. Nova 2 was the first unsuccessful mission in the Nova programme. |
| Nova 3 | 21 January 2007 | It was originally intended to carry aUK High Altitude Societypayload consisting of several modules, but electronic failures prevented this from being the case. Nova 3 served as a test flight for a cutdown mechanism, and was located in Germany on 23 January 2007. The payload was arranged to be sent back to CU Spaceflight. |
| Nova 4 | 7 March 2007 | Concept demonstrator for alaunch platform for the Martlet 1 rocket. The payload carried included all components necessary to fire a rocket except the rocket itself. The mission reached 20 kilometres, and landed at 8m/s. |
| Nova 5 | 24 March 2007 | Launched from theCavendish Laboratory at theUniversity of Cambridge, into overcast cloud. It was launched in front of a crowd at the Cambridge Science Week (as part of CU Spaceflight'soutreach programme). It was intended to fire the Martlet 1 rocket, but theigniter failed and the rocket never left the balloon. Both vehicles were recovered on 12 April 2007, in a fully reusable state. Following the unsuccessful mission, CU Spaceflight announced they would be working towards their next Martlet launch with theMIT Rocket Team, anMITstudent society also aimed at cheap space access. |
| Nova 6 | 24 July 2008 | After an extended period of not launching due to insurance difficulties, CU Spaceflight returned the Nova programme to flight with the launch ofNova 6. After analysis of GPS data logs after a successful landing, it was officially confirmed that Nova 6 had broken Nova 1's altitude record, thus setting a new British record (Nova 1 was the prior record holder), about 260 metres higher than that of the first flight. |
| Nova 7 | 25 July 2008 | The high-altitude balloon was launched shortly after 3:30 AM BST. The near spacecraft was successfully recovered. |
| Nova 8 | 28 August 2008 | Launched 4:07 AM BST; dawn launch. Successfully videoed and photographed sunrise fromhigh altitude, a major mission objective. Recovered less than a kilometre from software-predicted landing site. |
| Nova 9 | 1 December 2008 | Launched in collaboration withParkside School carrying 4 teddies wearingspacesuits designed by students up to 30 kilometres. This launch received significantpress coverage around the world. |
Meteor is a project designed to provide a landing system for falling body to a 100-metre accuracy, from any point within theEarth's atmosphere.The Meteor project will use aparaglider to land objects.
Martlet is the project aimed at the development of a smallrocket andlaunch system which can be launched from a Nova balloon in theupper atmosphere.
CU Spaceflight aim the final Martlet rocket to be less than 1 metre long, weigh 3.5 kilograms, and carry a 0.5 kg payload. The intended cost per launch is less thanGBP£1000. The rocket will be asolid-fuel rocket. Its objective is to reachsuborbital space – i.e. reaching altitudes in excess of 100 km (the boundary of space).
The idea of a balloon-launched rocket – arockoon – is not new, but is rarely practiced. The incentives for air-based launch are that the altitude the balloons reach are in thenear space region – which is above 99% of the atmosphere – thus resulting insignificantly lessatmospheric drag, requiring far lessrocket fuel.
| Mission Name | Launch Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Martlet 0 | 1 March 2009 | A successful ground launch of a prototype for the final Martlet rocket. It was launched at the EARS rocketry site reaching a height just under 9,000 ft and a speed of around thespeed of sound. Therocket motor used was a commercial J-class motor, however the rocket casing is designed for a motor with three times the power. |
Since its inception, Cambridge University Spaceflight has been covered by several major news sources, includingThe Guardian[7] andBBC News.[8]
Photos from the Nova 9 launch were printed in many nationalnewspapers includingThe Times,The Daily Telegraph andThe Daily Mail. Members of the team also gave interviews to theDiscovery Channel,Sky News and theBBC World Service.
Following the success of Nova 1 and the announcement of the Martlet and Meteor projects, CU Spaceflight has received interest from the university's Department for Atmospheric Chemistry and theBritish Antarctic Survey on the results of its work.
CU Spaceflight has performed talks in secondary schools in and aroundCambridge, UK, and continues to offer to do so, hoping to raise the profile ofengineering andaerospace in particular.
During the 2007Cambridge Science Festival,[9] CU Spaceflight launched their Nova 5 balloon in front of a large crowd.
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