The French National Rockets Launch Campaign and its Dawn of Collaboration with Japanese Amateur Space Clubs

Paper number

IAC-07-E1.1.04

Author

Mr. Christophe Scicluna, Planete Sciences, France

Coauthor

Dr. Kenji Ogimoto, Space Club-Kansai, Japan

Coauthor

Dr. Minoru Sasaki, Japan

Coauthor

Dr. Koichi Yonemoto, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan

Year

2007

Abstract

Under the control of CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), the French non-profit organisation Planète Sciences has been providing young amateurs with a yearly rocket launch campaign to make their dream fly (i.e. technical rocket project) since 1962. The amateurs, gathered in clubs, must "comply" with strict rocket dedicated safety constraints dealing with structure, stability, telemetry, recovery. They also have to respect a project methodology in order to give all the guarantees that their rockets will be completed on time and will not endanger neither the staff of volunteers nor the public. The clubs are allowed to design their own rockets and onboard experiments on the basis of propeller specifications provided by Planète Sciences and validated by CNES. The propellers are provided by CNES only to the clubs who show the safety compliances by completing preflight ground tests. This is one of the major guarantees for a safe launching campaign.


The Japanese clubs, which are organized by university and high-school students under the leadership of university professors in Osaka, Gifu and Kitakyushu, are the most frequent foreign participants to the French National rocket launch campaign in recent years. Although the Japanese Model Rocket Society promotes amateur rocketry by providing the safety regulations controlled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry since 1990, there are a few chances like the French National rocket launch campaign for the Japanese students to bring a space project to reality and thus to increase the academic knowledge and engineers reservoir. Not only they develop a sense for engineering but they also face foreign cultural and technical differences that must be overcome for a full accomplishment of the project and its valorization in their future career.


This paper discusses the activities of the French National rocket launch campaign and its dawn of collaboration with the Japanese amateur space clubs, and overviews the next step of this unique international space exchange.



http://www.planete-sciences.org

http://www.unics-co.jp/utyuukurabu.htm

Department of Human and Information Systems Engineering – Faculty of Engineering, Gifu University

Space Engineering Course, Department of Mechanical and Control Engineering – Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology

Abstract document

IAC-07-E1.1.04.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-E1.1.04.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.