UK STUDENT MARS MISSION LAUNCHES

UK STUDENT MARS MISSION LAUNCHES
   55 Mars science experiments from 33 UK schools ascend to the stratosphere

Cannes, October 27th 2014 - The MARSBalloon mission launched yesterday 55 student
experiments designed to carry out real Mars science. These experiments were designed
and created by UK primary and secondary school students. This is the second flight of a
unique project aimed to encourage young people to take up careers in the UK space
industry. The project was devised and is run by young space engineers from Thales
Alenia Space (TAS) UK with funding from the Science & Technology Facilities Council
(STFC).

The experiments were carried over 30km up into Earth’s atmosphere on a high altitude
balloon, named Elysium after a volcanic region of Mars, where they experienced
temperatures as low as -50°C, pressures of 1% of that at sea level and increased levels
of radiation; conditions which are very similar to that of the surface of Mars. These
conditions can rapidly degrade materials, damage electronics and sterilise organics.

The students were set the challenge to come up with experiments for testing anything
that humans might want to take or do on Mars in the future. All of the experiments had to
fit inside a Kinder Surprisetm toy capsule and were mounted onto a special tray beneath
the balloon to maximise their exposure to the hostile environment.

The mission was launched from a Thales UK testing site in the Mendips at 12:05pm. The
balloon and experiments then rose to a maximum altitude of 31,240m at which the
balloon burst and the experiments fell via parachute for a landing in Bramshill Forest,
Eversley (112km from the launch site). The on-board tracking system then allowed the
launch team to recover the tray and all of the experiments safely two hours later.

The idea for the mission was inspired by the need to show how fun and diverse careers
in space engineering and science (and other STEM subjects) can be to meet the
government’s goal of quadrupling the size of the UK Space industry by 2030. This
means the industry is going to need 70,000 new space engineers, operators and
scientists in the next 15 years to continue the vital work that Space science and satellites
do for our world. The project was also intended to allow UK students to carry out original
Mars science, an opportunity that is not currently available to schools anywhere else in
the world.

This launch follows a previous MARSBalloon mission, named Tharsis after another
volcanic region of Mars, which successfully flew in June 2014 with 80 experiments from
30 schools.

UK secondary school teachers interested in entering their class or club onto flights
planned for 2015 should register on the project website: www.marsballoon.com

The experiments recovered from Elysium will be returned to the students who made
them. They will be encouraged to write up their scientific results for publishing on the
project website.

Notes to Editors:

   1. The MARSBalloon project was devised and run by young space engineers from
      TAS UK. The project is free for schools to participate and is open to all
      secondary schools in the UK. The students are set the challenge to design
      experiments related to anything that humans might want to take or do on Mars in
      the future. These experiments were then launched on high altitude balloons into
      Earth’s stratosphere that recreated the conditions of low pressure, -50ºC
      temperatures and high cosmic radiation found on the surface of Mars.
   2. Tharsis and Elysium are successors to last year’s MARSBalloon pilot program,
      funded by the UK Space Agency, which launched 140 primary, secondary and
      university student experiments on two balloons, named Phobos and Deimos after
      the moons of Mars.
   3. Full details of the flight including video highlights, imagery, flight data and
      experiment results will be published on its dedicated page:
      http://marsballoon.com/elysium-2/
   4. For more information contact:
          Mr Andrew Bacon
          Senior Space Systems Engineer
          Thales Alenia Space UK Ltd
          andrew.bacon@thalesaleniaspace.com
          +44 (0) 1179 375231
          or
          Mr Michael Guest
          Senior Space Systems Engineer
          Thales Alenia Space UK Ltd
          Michael.guest@thalesaleniaspace.com
          +44 (0) 1179 375316

About Thales Alenia Space UK
Thales Alenia Space opened in 2014 a British subsidiary in England, based in Harwell,
Oxfordshire, and completed the acquisition of SEA space business activities, in Bristol.
The new subsidiary will provide expertise in systems engineering, electronics, sensors
and space mission subsystems. Thales Alenia Space UK will also be an integral part of
Thales Alenia Space Neosat prime engineering activities, contributing to the design and
production of the propulsion subsystem for this new platform. With more than 60
employees, Thales Alenia Space UK intends to become the second major space actor in
the United-Kingdom.

About the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
The STFC is a world-leading multi-disciplinary science organisation, with the goal to
deliver economic, societal, scientific and international benefits to the UK and its people –
and more broadly to the world.

Thales Alenia Space Press Contacts:

Sandrine Bielecki        Tel: +33 (0)4 92 92 70 94    sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com
Tarik Lahlou             Tel: +33 (0)4 92 92 68 45    tarik.lahlou@thalesaleniaspace.com

Complete list of flown experiments and schools:
For all experiments, students were asked to consider items which they thought would be
affected by the Martian environment, make a hypothesis of what they think will happen
and outline how they would test this upon return of the experiments. Each school has a
unique identifier [in square brackets] which allows them to identify their experiments in
images.
      Flegg High School [FHS]: Cucumber seeds and dried yeast for future Mars explorers to
       make cucumber sandwiches;
      Ripley Academy [MHS]; Cress seeds and jelly babies;
      King Edward VI Grammar School [KEG]: A test of leaded and unleaded solder;
      The Market Bosworth School [MBS]: Memory sticks, polymers/adhesives and ferrite;
      Horbury Academy [HBA]: Batteries under load (bulb and LED, data logged), magnesium
       and quails eggs;
      Beaumont Collegiate Academy [BCA]: Onion, leaves and loop bands;
      Selwood Academy [SWA]: USB drive, Sugar, Battery, stickytape, Antibacterial gel.
       Blutack;
      Hanham Woods Academy [HHS]: Uncooked quails egg, marshmallows, custard and a
       guitar string;
      Stirling High School [STR]: USB drives, various insulation types;
      Abbeywood Community School [ACC]: Protection test of different grades of sunscreen;
      Withernsea High School [WHS]: Temperature probe (data logged), petals, GPS/SMS
       locator, custard and lava rocks
      Ridgeway High School [RHS]: Seeds;
      Idsall School [IDS]: Ultraviolet sensor (data logged);
      Wildern School [WLD]: Toothpaste;
      Churchdown School Academy [CSA]; Unpopped corn, magnets and saturated salt
       solution;
      Hobart High School [HHI]: Contact lenses, smarties and a leaf;
      Kingswood Academy [KWA]: A watch (synchronised with a control on the ground);
      Beverly High School [BHS]: A photograph, tooth and paper;
      Oriel High School [OHS]: Cultures of Staphlycoccus Albus (bacteria found on human
       skin);
      Malet Lambert School [MLS]: Light bulb, memory stick, marshmallows, Malteasers,
       plotting compass, paper with ink, cress and a flying saucer;
      Duffryn Junior School [DJS]: Teabag, eraser and Blutak;
      Thomas Keble Secondary School [TKS]: Test of the magnetism of a compass, quails egg
       and a Mars bar;
      Bramhall High School [BRM]: Blutak and cress seeds;
      Norwich School [NOR] / Science Discovery club [SDC]: Marshmallow and seeds in soil;
      North Walsham High School [NWH]: Lego;
      Burgess Hill School for Girls [BUR/BURT/BURR]: Human bacteria, batteries, spring
       constant of an elastic band;
      Belmont Academy [BEL]: Sim card;
      Sturminster Newton High School: Gummy bears (test for sugar, protein, moisture and
       calorie levels);
      Wellington School, Timperly [WLL]: Plant growth;
      North Somerset Enterprise and Technology College [NSE]: X-Ray photographic films with
       several levels of shielding;
      Holy Trinity School Crawly [HTS]: Seeds;
      Fernhill School & Language College [FER]: (Theme of communication) Sim card,
       coloured pencils, hearing aid batteries, (theme of living) sweets, PVA glue, seeds, Lego,
       planted grass/seeds, a peice of traditional buddhist horn.

IMAGES

                Figure 1 Infographic describing the stages of Elysium’s flight

Figure 2 The view of the Mendip hills and launch team (lower left) a few seconds after release

Figure 3 Side camera view at maximum altitude [31.240m] just before balloon burst

                 Figure 4 Top camera view at maximum altitude

Figure 5 Side camera view at moment of balloon burst

Figure 6 Top camera view of landing site in Bramshill Forest