Progress report for the NELS project, one of ten projects that benefited from the crowdfunding campaign led by Arts et Métiers.
What does the Nels (Normalized European Launcher System) project consist of?
Space research is extremely expensive today. We are convinced that it would be beneficial for science and for technological and social progress if everyone had access to it. We therefore want to offer companies, universities, and even high schools the opportunity to send their experiments into space easily and at low cost.
To this end, we have designed a nanosatellite, a CubeSat, and its deployment system. The advantage of the CubeSat is its rapid deployment (one or two years compared to several decades for conventional satellites) and its low launch cost (around €150,000 per launch compared to several million or even tens of millions of euros for a conventional satellite).
What is unique about your CubeSat?
We want to create a standard, reusable, low-cost CubeSat launcher. What's more, we want the plans to be available to everyone (open-source). This means that future students, manufacturers, or scientists wishing to conduct an experiment in space will only have to focus on carrying out their experiment, without having to work on designing a CubeSat and its deployment system.
What has CrAMfunding brought you?
Firstly, to raise a significant amount of money (€4,003). This money will enable us to purchase the raw materials needed to develop our prototypes, but also to outsource certain stages of manufacturing that we cannot carry out at school. This will enable us to accelerate the development of our first viable prototype!
This crowdfunding campaign has also raised the profile of our project. We have received a lot of feedback from alumni and companies.
What stage of your project are you at?
We are currently working on the launcher, which we want to optimize. We have defined precise specifications and made our choice for the different parts of the launcher (body, opening, etc.), taking into account the comments made by our teachers and professionals in the aerospace sector.
And what happens next in the adventure?
Once the various technological solutions have been selected, we will create a 3D model and a mock-up, which will then undergo testing.
At the same time, we are participating in theEuropean Space Agency (ESA) competition Fly Your Satellite competition at the end of October.
The stakes are high because if we are selected, we will have a place on a Rexus rocket to carry out an experiment. Better still, the ESA will finance the pre-launch tests, the rocket, and the launch.
