EXPERIENCE FROM THE STUDENT PROGRAMME REXUS/BEXUS: A STEPPING STONE TO A SPACE CAREER

The aim of this paper is to give an inside view to the REXUS/BEXUS programme from the perspective of a student who has been involved in the project. Each year, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB), in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), offer the opportunity to European University Students to fly an experiment on board sounding rockets or stratospheric balloons in the frame of the REXUS/BEXUS programme. From December 2012 to May 2014 a team of master students from KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology, worked on ISAAC project, an atmospheric experiment launched on board REXUS 15. The author was part of this student team and was involved in the whole process of the ISAAC project from design building and testing phases to the launch campaign and results analysis. The points raised in this article were presented on the occasion of a keynote speech during the 22nd ESA Symposium on European Rocket and Balloon Programmes and Related Research, in Tromso (Norway) from the 7th to the 12th of June 2015. The aim of this presentation was to demonstrate the benefits of hands-on Education programme at University level. In addition to the research opportunities, future space engineers and scientists can profit from a first practical experience under the supervision of experimented experts. The results of the ISAAC project were also presented in the frame of this conference [1].