The Ariane 6 rocket, which makes its maiden flight on Tuesday next, will carry an experiment developed by students from Sint-Pieters College in Brussels and the Institut Vallée Bailly in Braine-l'Alleud, the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced.
This will mark the first time that European secondary school students launch a payload into orbit aboard a rocket, according to the ESA.
Ariane 6 will carry a number of missions, including the Peregrinus project, named after Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt, a French scholar from the Middle Ages who studied magnetism.
The aim of this Belgian scientific mission is to measure the correlation between the Earth's magnetic field and the intensity of hard X-rays and soft gamma rays.
The students' experiment stands to help assess the radiation risks astronauts face
Orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 580 km, Peregrinus will provide data on the impact of solar activity and radiation levels in the Earth's magnetic field, ESA points out. According to the agency, a better understanding in this area will make it possible to assess the radiation risks for astronauts on the Moon or en route to Mars.
"Every 10 seconds, we will receive a message containing 10 seconds of data on the radiation hitting our detector (installed on the rocket) and on the Earth's magnetic field," Erik De Schrijver, science teacher at Sint-Pieters College in Jette and head of the Peregrinus project, explains.
The experiment will also benefit from raw positioning data provided by the satellite network and Ariane 6. This magnetic data transmission will continue until it is interrupted by the re-entry of the rocket's upper stage into the atmosphere. "Thanks to all this information, we should be able to obtain an interesting picture of the high-energy radiation that strikes the Earth's magnetic field," notes Erik De Schrijver.
For the ESA, this mission shows that with dedication and hard work, high school students can reach orbit and help stimulate the space ambitions of other children and young people across Europe. The Belgian students are the first European high school students to launch a payload into orbit on board a rocket, the Agency points out.
'A small step for mankind, a giant leap for us,' the young Belgians say
"This opportunity to take part in the maiden flight of Ariane 6 is unique for our students," says the head of the Peregrinus project. He hopes this will create momentum for more ambitious and practical space education projects for European students of all levels.
And how does the young Peregrinus team see this achievement? "Ariane 6 - a small step for mankind, a giant leap for us," says Lore De Becker, from Sint-Pieterscollege "Knowing that, as high school students, we were able to play a tiny role in a campaign as complex as the launch of the new Ariane 6? It's a unique experience and we're grateful to have been part of it," adds the 18-year-old.
