Friday the 9th of december Liselott, Viktor, Jonas and Christian went to the Rymdgymnasium (Space High School) in Kiruna and held a presentation about Project Marvel. There were lots of interesting questions and the Teachers were very glad to have us there promoting Space related work. 
Not much is happening right now project wise, mostly it all correlates to writing the final report and contemplating over the results. One thing that did happen was that “Space Forum 2011″ took place in Kiruna 22-23rd of November. Marvel was of course there to mingle and to discuss.
Presentation about advantage space
The outreach work for Marvel continuous on. Last week, Malmö was visited during the SACO student fair together with many thousand senior high school students from the region.
Gladly, many showed interest in Luleå and our unique space education. Especially Mini Marvel was very popular and all of our pamphlets was spent. During both presentations the crowd were to many for the available chairs.
Below are a few pictures from the official SACO website.
Not much have happened since the launch campaign. The outreach group has been working with a few different things and one of them is “Mini Marvel”. It is just one tenth of the original size and we intend to use it during the coming presentations. Here are a few pictures from when we painted it!
It is white! ...And so cute! =)
Liselott sanding down the filler on Mini Marvel
Viktor about to spray color the details blue!
Christian removing the masking tape...
...and look how nice it looks!
Yesterday we spent the whole day recovering Marvel from the woods. At last we found it and brought it back to Esrange!
In the evening we had the launch campaign party. It was really nice and everybody was very happy!
Here are some pictures from the recovery expedition in the woods and a group picture from the party!
This is how we found Marvel. One wing was broken and the pitot tubes were bent, but the rest of the airframe was completely undamaged!
Discussing how to bring it back.
Sara carrying the airframe.
Through the woods!
Marsh land.
Launch campaign party! Group picture with Captain Australia!
Marvel was launched successfully this afternoon! The balloon took off beautifully and we dropped Marvel from approximately 4.2 km of height. Everything after the drop went according to plan. Marvel flew for approximately six minutes before we deployed the parachute. After that the airframe landed somewhere in the woods and tomorrow we are heading out on foot to retrieve it! It will be exciting to see the how it looks and watch the movie from the onboard camera!
Below are the video from the balloon launch and many pictures! Enjoy!
Viktor, Mikael and Christian attaching Marvel to the gondola one last time before the launch!
Final preparations!
The hangars of the balloon launch pad.
Last access to the gondola.
Hercules and the gondola ready for lift off!
Joshua and Jonas ready for flight!
the balloon is being filled with gas!
The filling of the balloon!
Everybody watching!
The balloon is filled and ready for flight!
Just after take off!
The balloon flying so beautifully!
The busy groundstation.
Celebrating the successful flight with some Champagne!
Happiness, Champaign and media coverage!
The launch is really close now, and we are working on getting the livestream to start. We hope it will show the launch!
Follow the link below and you will find a webcam that shows the balloon launch pad. It only updates every 15 seconds, but it’s better than nothing. If the REXUS/BEXUS staff has time before the launch, they will set up a live stream camera that films the launch. Right now there are perfect conditions for launching the balloon and everyone are working very hard to get everything ready as soon as possible. Marvel is mounted on the gondola and ready for flight, and Hercules is standing in launch ready position. We are all so excited!
http://www.spaceportsweden.com/www2/axis/cam01e.html
Countdown!
Hercules just picked up the BEXUS 13 gondola for the RF interference test. A little bit behind schedule, but we are still working towards a launch today! Here are some pictures and a small video! Closest to the camera is Marvel and on the left side is the other airframe, Vexredus.
Hercules, that will lift the gondola.
The wind direction indicator is up in the air!
Viktor and Christian by the BEXUS 13 gondola, which is prepared for the RF interference test.
Viktor and Christian putting removing the aux cable and putting on the nose cone before the RF interference test.
The gondola is being moved.
Hercules and the gondola.
Hercules lifting the gondola.
BEXUS 12 had a very successful launch yesterday evening. After approximately two hours of floating time the balloon was cut down somewhere over Finland.
Today we have just had the morning meeting and we have good news! At 12:30 local time the BEXUS13 gondola is going to be picked up for the RF interference test. The test should take somewhere around one hour or so, and if everything goes as it is supposed to do, we might go into countdown for launch after that! The weather conditions are nice, no rain and just a light breeze, perfect for launching Marvel!
Keep your fingers crossed for launch and make sure you visit the blog often today to keep yourself updated; it might be the BIG day!