Max-Planck-Institut
  für extraterrestrische Physik

The MPE parable flight team.

Image: MPE

Parable Flights in Bordeaux

At a three-day parable flight campaign in Bordeaux, the MPE group Theory and Complex Plasmas carried out the experiment "Fast PK-3 Plus", which is supposed to complement the tests on the International Space Station (ISS): With the aid of a new data entry system, which is able to record up to 1000 pictures per second, very fast effects in complex plasmas can be studied.

In particular waves were studied, which on the one hand are externally stirred and on the other hand arise by themselves in the system. Moreover the transition into a state ordered by electrical fields was studied. Finally the team examined the formation of particle tracks, which are injected into a particle cloud, and of bubble fluids.
This was the first time that the MPE participated at a parable flight with this high-speed experiment. The flights are carried out regularly, about once or twice per year, by the DLR, and additionally also by ESA. Besides Fast PK-3 Plus also hardware tests for the experiment PK-4, planned for the Space Station, were made.

All in all, the parable flight campaign went well for the MPE: The hardware worked perfectly, and with the exception of some small accidents at the first parable all experiments could be carried out as planned. In the next weeks the collected data will be analysed.

	Web pages of the theory group at MPE
	Blog on parable flight (in German language)