Preliminary Design Review week - Part I

Monday 15/02/2016 – DAY ONE of PDR week

After waking up, we all get the Christmas feeling again. We will be spending the coming days in this snowy landscape.

At 8:20 the PDR training week offcially starts. We will be having lectures until 17:15 concerning different aspect of the REXUS/BEXUS programme and safety at the ESRANGE facilities. Team OSCAR is present on the second row!

During the session breaks we decided to quickly go outside and cool down in the snow (and to forget about the travel fatigue).

After dinner there was a pub evening session in the relax room at the ESRANGE building. The different teams gathered to relax and exchange thoughts on about everything in life.

In the meanwhile we decided to install the Aurora Borealis alarm. Our UHasselt magnetometer expert (Jarda) wanted to perform testing with the magnetometer from the UHasselt Aurora expedetion. This setup consists out of sensors which work on the principle of Giant Magneto Resistance (GMR). This principle is also used in classic computer hard drives to read and write data. When there is Aurora Borealis activity, there will be a change in the magnetic field and this can be sensed by the GMR sensors. As always, it’s a bit of trouble shooting to get the electronics working, Rob is however very cool on it!

In this cold temperatures the battery really drains out fast! So what do you use to isolate them? ….. Socks! Jarda: “Trust me, I’m an engineer!”

As said, when the magnetic field of the earth is changing, the sensor will pick it up, and the electronics (Arduino based) will start calling us on our cellphone to inform us about Aurora Borealis activity. The only action that needs to be taken now, is to bury the sensors in the snow (located in the grey PVC tubes) and we are set! 

“Everyday he is shoveling….”

Already after a few hours (22:00 in the evening) "Aurora Borealis" started calling Jarda. And we got to see this (Pictures are courtesy of the REXUS/BEXUS program):

Moreover, as it was a clear sky, there were LIDAR experiments going on at ESRANGE. They basically shoot a very high power LASER (green line in the picture which is courtesy of the REXUS/BEXUS program) up to the sky to track changes in the atmospheric layers. Something very unique to see!

After all this action in one day, we go to bed to prepare for day two! (Stay tuned.........)