First thermal and mechanical design approach of the MAIUS (QUANTUS-III) experiment

Kurzfassung

The MAIUS experiment is a high precision quantum optics experiment flying on a VSB30 sounding rocket with the scientific objective to demonstrate the feasibility of creating a Bose-Einstein Condensates and atom interferometry in Space. In order to achieve this goal the experiment is using various sensitive instruments giving hard requirements to the thermal and mechanical design. Especially ultra-high vacuum components (such as pumps, seals, etc.) and the temperature sensitive laser sources are not designed to operate in the rough environment of a sounding rocket. This paper shall present some design approaches to make these components withstand the high mechanical and thermal loads of a rocket launch. Moreover some test results of commercial components shall be presented.