16 October 2025
ASTER Selected for REXUS 30 Launch
Project ASTER (Attitude STabilized free falling ExpeRiment) was selected in December 2019 for the REXUS 30 launch, scheduled for March 2021. The 18-member ASTER team from LTU includes 8 from SpaceMaster Round 15, 8 from Spacecraft Design and 2 from the national Master in Space Engineering (Year 3 + Year 4).
ASTER aims to develop a high-performance, low-cost and easy to integrate attitude control system for free falling experiments ejected from sounding rockets. Current attitude control systems are targeted for orbital flights and therefore act relatively slowly, with attitude control maneuvers measured in orbits rather than minutes or seconds. Furthermore, they are usually aimed at projects with extensive funding, making them excessively expensive for experiments operating under tight budgetary requirements. Sounding rocket experiments are generally lower budget missions and are heavily constrained by flight time, and as such they would benefit greatly from a low-cost, high-performance solution.
ASTER’s engineering solution utilises three electrically-powered reaction wheels to stabilise and orientate the free falling unit in three axes in a reduced gravity environment. The system shall be compact to ensure sufficient space to accommodate the payload of future missions. Additionally, it shall be able to achieve agile stabilization to increase the available time for experiments after successful stabilization. Furthermore, it should perform predefined slewing maneuvers to be adaptable to a wider range of applications. Follow the team on Facebook.
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