STORM in Space

After several delays, the shuttle Atlantis finally blasted off last week.... carrying with it the Southampton Transient Oxygen and Radiation Monitor (STORM) instrument. This little beauty will attach to the outside of the ISS Columbus module to see how the hostile space environment affects various different materials used to construct spacecraft, such as polymers.

It was designed by colleagues in the School of Engineering Sciences, and School of Electronics and Computer Science. Two PhD students did most of the detailed work, and undergraduates also helped with several aspects of the design.

Read more about it in our official press release here. Also, the main NASA web page hasmore about the overall MEDET experimental package here.

If you want to be a rocket scientist, then why not learn from the lecturers and professors who designed this shuttle payload on our Master of Engineering course in Space Systems Engineering.