Return to Earth of Foton-M3 Experiments
“I am extremely pleased with the success of the Foton-M3 mission,” says Josef Winter, Head of ESA’s Payload and Microgravity Platform Division. “All operations during the mission were flawless. The hard work and dedication of all involved has contributed to make this mission a success. I would like to congratulate our Russian counterparts and thank them for their outstanding cooperation.”
The Foton-M3 spacecraft landed on September 26, 2007 in the town of Kustanay, Kazakhstan, near the Russian border at approximately 13:58 local time after its original launching on September 14, 2007. An unmanned Foton spacecraft, it carried 43 different European experiments in a wide range of scientific areas—fluid physics, biology, crystal growth, radiation exposure and exobiology. NASA collaborated with Russia on the robotic mission in order to conduct biological studies.
Originally created to conduct experiments in weightlessness, the Russian Foton spacecraft was designed and built by the Central Specialized Design Bureau of the State Research and Product Space Rocket Center (TsSKB-Progress), launched by the Soyuz-U launcher in 1985. Simply put together, the Foton consists of simply three modules: the descent module, the battery pack; and the attitude and orbit control module. When the spacecraft hits the ground on landing, the landing system employs a system of parachutes and aretro-rocket in order to cushion the shock of the ground impact.
Throughout the mission, 65 engineers and scientists monitored intensively the data that was being received from the spacecraft, located at ground stations at Esrange, in Kiruna, Sweden, and at the Russian flight control center, TsUP in Moscow, Russian. With assistance from the Canadian Space Agency, St. Hubert and Saskatton ground stations were also used to receive the data. Once the spaceship landed, on the spot helicopters were at the landing site to begin the space recovery operations and the retrieval of experimental hardware. Then the European experiments will go to ESA’s research and technology center, ESTEC in Noordwijk, located in the Netherlands where the new data will be analyzed over the months to follow.
Promising results have been demonstrated in the flight, with more detailed in-depth analysis to reveal its scientific extent. The United States and Italian teams were responsible for the experiment GRADFLEX (GRADient-Driven Fluctuation Experiment) which have already received its preliminary confirmation of a 10-year fluid science theory.
“I am extremely satisfied that we could fly a very high number of experiments during the Foton-M3 mission and that they all worked out well. Some of them will even be further elaborated onboard the International Space Station,” says Martin Zell, ESA’s Head of Research Operations for the Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Space Agency News, Technical Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
