MAPHEUS Rocket
Together with the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine (ME) and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA), the Institute of Materials Physics in Space (MP) operates the sounding rocket program MAPHEUS (MAterials PHysics Experiments Under WeightlessnesS). The two-stage rocket, which is launched from SSC Esrange near Kiruna, Sweden, reaches an altitude of around 250 km and thus remains in weightlessness for around 6 minutes. It can carry a payload of around 250 kg, which usually consists of four to five experiments.
The first MAPHEUS rocket was launched in May 2009 and since then an average of one campaign per year has been carried out. On board were many successful experiments from materials physics, but also from biology and medicine (by the ME Institute). The latest highlights from materials physics include X-ray radiography to investigate diffusion and solidification phenomena in situ and undisturbed by gravity, magnetically excited granular matter to investigate the dynamics of free-cooling granular gases, a granular sound experiment, a light scattering and microscopy experiment on active colloidal microswimmers and a 3D printer based on metal powder.