The European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) was an unmanned 4.5 tonne satellite with 15 experiments. It was an ESA mission and the acronym was derived from Archimedes

Archimedes

Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...

' bathtub revelation; Eureka!

Eureka (word)

"Eureka" is an interjection used to celebrate a discovery, a transliteration of a word attributed to Archimedes.-Etymology:The word comes from ancient Greek εὕρηκα heúrēka "I have found ", which is the 1st person singular perfect indicative active of the verb heuriskō "I find"...

.

It was built by the German MBB

Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm

Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm was a German aerospace company formed as the result of several mergers in the late 1960s. Among its best-known products was the MBB Bo 105 light twin helicopter...

-ERNO and had automatic material science cells as well as small telescopes for Solar observation (including x-ray).

It was launched 31 July 1992 by STS-46

STS-46

STS-46 was a NASA space shuttle mission using orbiter Atlantis and launched on 31 July 1992 at 9:56:48 am EDT.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass:**Orbiter landing with payload: **Payload: *Perigee: *Apogee:...

 - Atlantis

Space Shuttle Atlantis

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration , the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States...

, and put into an orbit at an altitude of 508 km. EURECA was retrieved on 1 July 1993 by STS-57

STS-57

STS-57 was a Shuttle-Spacehab mission of that launched 21 June 1993 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.-Crew:-Mission parameters:**Mass:**Orbiter landing with payload: **Payload: *Perigee: *Apogee:...

- Endeavour

Space Shuttle Endeavour

Space Shuttle Endeavour is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States. Endeavour was the fifth and final spaceworthy NASA space shuttle to be built, constructed as a replacement for Challenger...

 and returned to Earth. It was designed to fly five times with different experiments but the following flights were cancelled.

EURECA is one of the few unmanned space vehicles that have been returned to the Earth unharmed. EURECA has been on display at the Swiss Transport Museum

Swiss Transport Museum

The Swiss Transport Museum or Verkehrshaus der Schweiz, in Lucerne, is a museum, opened in July 1959 and exhibiting all forms of transport as well as communications...

 in Lucerne

Lucerne

Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...

since 2000.

Configuration

EURECA was made of high-strength carbon-fiber struts and titanium nodal points joined together to form a framework of cubic elements. Thermal control on EURECA combined both active and passive heat transfer and radiation systems. Active heat transfer was achieved by means of a freon cooling loop which dissipated the thermal load through two radiators into space. The passive system made use of multilayer insulation blankets combined with electrical heaters.

The electrical subsystem was powered by deployable and retractable solar arrays together with four 40 amp-hour nickel-cadmium batteries. When EURECA was in the Shuttle cargo bay, power was supplied by the Shuttle. The modular attitude and orbit control subsystem (AOCS) maintained attitude and spacecraft orientation and stabilization. An orbit transfer assembly, consisting of four thrusters, was used to boost EURECA to its operational attitude (515 km) and return it to retrievable orbit (about 300 km).

EURECA was three-axis stabilized by means of a magnetic torque assembly together with a nitrogen reaction control assembly (RCA). Data handling was carried out by EURECAs data handling subsystem (DHS) supported by telemetry and command subsystems providing the link to the ground station.

Experiments

EURECA consisted of 15 experiments:

• Solution Growth Facility (SGF) (Belgium)
• Protein Crystallization Facility (PCF) (Germany)
• Exobiology and Radiation Assembly (ERA) (Germany)
• Multi-Furnace Assembly (MFA) (Italy)
• Automatic Mirror Furnace (AMF) (Germany)
• Surface Forces Adhesion Instrument (SFA) (Italy)
• High Precision Thermostat Instrument (HPT) (Germany)
• Solar Constant and Variability Instrument (SOVA) (Belgium)
• Solar Spectrum Instrument (SOSP) (France)
• Occultation Radiometer Instrument (ORI) (Belgium)
• Wide Angle Telescope (WATCH) (Denmark)
• Timeband Capture Cell Experiment (TICCE) (Great Britain)
• Radio Frequency Ionization Thruster Assembly (RITA) (Germany)
• Inter-Orbit Communications (IOC) (France/the Netherlands)
• Advanced Solar Gallium Arsenide Array (ASGA) (Italy)