Suborbital Flight: An Affordable and Feasible Option for Mexican Aerospace Development

Abstract

Suborbital flights are a low-cost option for universities. To perform suborbital missions, it is necessary to design, plan, test, verify, and validate each and every one of the subsystems that integrate the payload without leaving the Earth. In Mexico, some experiments have been carried out since the 1990s to test communication systems in case of disaster and emergency. The Mexican Service Gondola (CSM) from 2015 to date has made suborbital flights in conjunction with the National Polytechnic Institute and the group of Protective Coatings Resistant to Thermal Changes and Cosmic Radiation (CRTCR) to test communication systems and glass-ceramic coatings. Suborbital flights are a great opportunity to explore the national territory and test new communication systems, structures, and materials.