MASER 11 was successfully launched by a VSB-30 rocket motor on 15 May 2008 from Esrange Space Center. The rocket carried 4 experiment modules financed by ESA. The technical success rate was 100 %. The objective of BIOMICS (Dynamics of cells and biomimetic systems) experiment was to get better understanding of the dynamics of blood cells, i.e. their transport and motility in blood vessels. The objective of XRMON (In-situ X-ray monitoring of advanced metallurgical processes under microgravity and terrestrial conditions) experiment was to investigate the growth kinetics and stability of Al-based metallic foams. CDIC-2 (Chemo-hydrodynamic instabilities and pattern at interfaces between reactive solutions) was the continuation of a series of fluid science experiments started with CDIC flown on MASER 10 in 2005. SOURCE (Convective boiling and condensation; local analysis and modelling of dynamics and transfers) was a benchmark type of experiment on fluid behaviour in tanks under weightlessness to verify numerical predictions. The Service Module featured an increased telemetry downlink capacity of 4×5 Mbps. Flight video images from eight cameras were in real time provided to scientists for monitoring and control of their experiments. This paper reports on the configuration, the flight objectives of the mission and the flight performance.
展开▼
