About our team

Our team SOLDERx - Soldering Operations in Low-Gravity Environments for Research and Exploration, is a team of students of the National University of Science and Technology Politehnica of Bucharest participating in the REXUS/BEXUS Programme.

We have been selected to participate in the upcoming mission, and we are thrilled to have the chance to contribute to cutting-edge scientific research. The launch of the experiment is planned to be in March 2025 from Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden.

About REXUS/BEXUS

The REXUS/BEXUS programme is realised under a bilateral Agency Agreement between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). The Swedish share of the payload has been made available to students from other European countries through a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). EuroLaunch, a cooperation between the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) of DLR, is responsible for the campaign management and operations of the launch vehicles.

Experts from DLR, SSC, ZARM and ESA provide technical support to the student teams throughout the project. REXUS and BEXUS are launched from SSC, Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.

Mission Objectives

The purpose of our experiment is to test the viability of soldering operations in milli-gravity environments by building an apparatus specifically made to replicate the process of through-hole soldering.

After recovery, we want to study the solder’s different molecular structure, affected by the lack of gravity, and determine if it would present any merits or demerits towards carrying the operation in the specified environment such as space stations.

We will be comparing these samples to a set of samples created using the same template, but performed in Earth's gravity and we will carry both destructive and non-destructive analysis on both sets in order to determine and state the resolution of our experiment.

Mission Timeline

  • The team was formed, after which it applied for the REXUS/BEXUS campaign with a "Proposal" document in October, which was accepted.
  • We participated in the "Selection Workshop" in the Netherlands, where our place in the program was solidified
  • Our team went through the first milestone of the project called PDR, "Preliminary Design Review" where we presented the first iterations of the project to a commission from ESA at the Esrange Space Center, near Kiruna, Sweden.
  • REXUS Critical Design Reviews (CDRs), DLR Oberpfaffenhofen
  • REXUS Integration Progress Reviews (IPRs) at student team sites
  • REXUS Experiment Acceptance Reviews (EARs) at student team sites
  • Integration Week (ITW), ZARM-FAB Bremen
  • Bench Test, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen
  • REXUS Campaign (12 days), SSC, Esrange Space Center
  • Delivery of the final REXUS Experiments reports

Meet the team


theo

Theodora Maria Pasăre

Project Manager & Member of Structure Department

Second year BSc Aerospace Engineering student

remus

Mihail Remus Palade

Head of Structural Department

Third year BSc Aerospace Engineering student

dragos

Dragoș Munteanu

Head of Electronics & Software Department

Third year BSc Aerospace Engineering student

andreeatanase

Andreea Luiza Tănase

Head of Outreach Department

Third year BSc Aerospace Engineering student

rares

Rareș-Mihail Dicu

Member of Electronics Department

Second year BSc Aerospace Engineering student

andreeaburaga

Andreea Buraga

Member of Software Department

Third year BSc Computer Science student

maria

Maria-Alexandra Dobre

Member of Electronics Department

Third year BSc Applied Sciences student

vlad

Vlad Daniel Sandoiu

Member of Electronics Department

Second year BSc Aerospace Engineering student

elisabeta

Elisabeta Valouxidi

Member of Structure Department

Third year BSc Aerospace Engineering student

zeni

Zenkő-Krisztina Bonczidai

Member of Structure Department

First year Master’s Computer Science student, finished Aerospace Engineering BSc

Sponsors and Partners