February 2013 Conferences Perseus and UKSEDS

The Stratos II team is spreading its reach across the borders. The last two weekends DARE members have attended two conferences related to student rocketry both in France and in the UK. The first was the Perseus conference of the 14th and 15th of February in Paris (of which you could have already read more in a previous article on this website). The second one was just last weekend: the 25th UKSEDS conference in Bristol on Saturday the 23th and Sunday the 24th.

DARE had attended the Perseus conference a number of times before in the previous years and it was nice to encounter familiar faces once again. The UKSEDS conference was attended by DARE members for the first time now and it was good to meet new people who are also interested in rocketry and spaceflight. And even here some familiar faces were seen who we had met before on the IAC conferences.

Picture collage of the 2013 Perseus conference

Perseus conference
The conference that took place in Paris was one of the yearly conferences of the Perseus project, the umbrella organization for all French student teams in rocketry. The French are working on a number of interesting projects together such as a rocket that is intended to go supersonic and a rocket airlaunch system: The Eole (see the picture in this text for the model of this system).

The French teams, such as Octave and Supaero, presented on a number of subjects. These ranged from the latest investigations on diaphragms for hybrid engines and water test of liquid engine injectors to separations mechanisms for the Eole and supersonic nosecones.

Although I myself had some troubles with the French language in the presentations, my friends Bart Buyens and Michael Eiche have more experience in that field and were able to deliver a good presentation on the advances of DARE during the last year and of course on the developments of Project Stratos.

Picture collage of the 2013 UKSEDS conference

UKSEDS conference
The UKSEDS conference was this year attended for the first time by DARE members. The yearly conference of the British students was held for the 25th time this year and therefore they arranged for representatives from all the important space industries located in the British isles and invited representatives from overseas such as DARE, Euroavia and SEDS members from the US.

On Friday the DARE delegation, traveling together with the Delft department of Euroavia, arrived in Bristol and got a guided tour of the most interesting locations of the city.

On Saturday and Sunday the present students enjoyed presentations from inspirational figures such as Dr. Ralph Lorenz (on the exploration of Titan) and Alan Bond (on Reaction Engines and the development of the Skylon). On Sunday morning DARE was also allowed its own spot in the schedule and introduced the present students to the history of DARE, the goals of the society and its current projects. Among those the engine development programs, the CanSat, and of course: Stratos II.

DARE and Project Stratos are looking forward to keep in contact with and work together with UKSEDS in the future. This last thing might be in closer reach than you think; we are pleased to have spoken with enthusiastic students who are interested in developing a payload for Stratos II. Cheers for students with initiative and see you later 😉