General Purpose Rocket Instrumentation and Payload System GRIPS

Abstract

The GRIPS sounding rocket system was developed by the DLR to satisfy the requirement for quick turnaround and low cost, technological and scientific sounding rocket missions requiring only 3 - 4 minutes of exoatmospheric (>100 Km) mission time, for up to 100 Kg of experiment payload. The success of the first four flights of the basic GRIPS in the Mini-TEXUS microgravity program, has encouraged the development of an advanced version to provide increased flight time and / or payload capacity, the option of attitude control, a GIPS receiver for fast location during descent and a variety of further improvements in the automatic checkout and analysis of subsystems. The performance of the standard vehicle will be improved by the replacement of the first stage Nike by a Taurus motor, as booster for the second stage improved Orion.