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).
On November 11, 2024, the MAPHEUS-15 payload (337 kg) was launched on a sub-orbital flight with a two-stage rocket from the Esrange spaceport near Kiruna, Sweden. During this flight, the payload remained in zero gravity for more than 6 minutes. It reached the apogee (farthest point from Earth) at an altitude of around 310 km and landed back on Earth after the flight largely undamaged at around 70 km from the starting point.
The DLR Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics was involved in MAPHEUS-15 with an experiment for remote sensing of the ionosphere in order to develop methods for space weather observation as part of the RESITEK (Resilient Technologies for Disaster Prevention) project. The experiment includes a receiver unit for GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) signals, which records raw data for the derivation of the ionospheric electron content TEC (Total Electron Content). The findings from the sub-orbital TEC observations will improve the monitoring of space weather in the future. They cover altitudes in the ionosphere (especially the E-layer at around 100 km) that are difficult to access by other platforms.
