VESICOLOS and NyMEX are two experiments designed for the flight on the sounding rocket MAPHEUS®. (MAPHEUS14,15&16).

 

VESICOLOS is a small fluorescence microscope in a 2U CubeSat unit. It is a sub-payload of the MOSAIC module, which handles power and signals for its CubeSat-sized inserts. The setup was designed for the observation in real time of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUV) in microgravity.

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NyMEX monitors the anisotropic fluorescence of fluorescence probe molecules within the membrane thanks to the presence of two photomultipliers. 

Both experiments are part of a collaboration between DLR and the University of Bordeaux. The contributors are:

• Jörg Drescher - hardware engineering (DLR-FM)

• Jens Hauslage - optics (DLR-ME)

• Thomas Voigtmann - software (DLR-FM)

• Laura Alvarez - science (U Bordeaux)

• Paulina Blair - science (DLR-FM / U Düsseldorf)

• Christian Kahlo - software revision, spare parts (VX4)

• Ivo Buttinoni - Science (U Düsseldorf)

• Georgios Stogiannidis - Science (U Düsseldorf)

 

The MAPHEUS sounding rocket is a program run by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), in collaboration between the Institute of Frontier Materials on Earth and in Space, the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, and the Mobile Rocket Base MORABA.