
GLITCH
The student project GLITCH aims to investigate how cosmic radiation affects electronic hardware in the stratosphere. Inspired by an incident in the speedrunning community, Joel Åström and Albin Ringström's project is set to fly aboard the BEXUS balloon in 2025.
"You grow so much through this project. We truly take responsibility and create something entirely our own. It's incredibly rewarding after years of theoretical work with mathematics and physics, which we now apply in a real-world context."
The goal of GLITCH (Gamma Light Interference in Technological Circuitry and Hardware) is to study how electronic hardware is affected by radiation in the atmosphere, particularly in the stratosphere, where cosmic radiation is higher than at ground level. As part of ESA's REXUS/BEXUS programme, where students across Europe conduct scientific experiments using rockets or stratospheric balloons, GLITCH will launch aboard a BEXUS balloon in October 2025. Equipped with sensors and SRAM memory, the team will measure software errors and the surrounding ion density.
"The Sun's activity and the radiation it emits toward Earth change over time. During the summer of 2025, this activity will peak, creating a 'perfect storm' of a worst-case scenario for electronic hardware in the stratosphere near ESRANGE," says project manager Joel Åström. He adds:
"We aim to measure how many bit errors occur during the flight and develop a model for how these errors impact hardware in high-radiation environments. Our findings could provide critical insights for future space technology design and potentially reduce the costs of protecting electronic systems."
A Technological Challenge
Electronic hardware is vulnerable to phenomena known as bit flips or Single Event Upsets (SEUs), where charged particles striking components can disrupt their logic. In the stratosphere, where the ionosphere reaches its highest density, the risk of these disruptions increases. With solar activity nearing its peak in 2025, the team faces a “worst-case scenario” for radiation exposure, making their research highly relevant.
"This is a unique opportunity to study radiation effects under these conditions. Previous data from New Mexico and Kiruna exist, but our measurements during a solar maximum can provide a deeper understanding of the risks," Joel Åström explains.
Work and Inspiration
The team currently comprises ten members: five Swedish aerospace engineering students and five international students from the Spacemaster programme. They work in subgroups such as management, mechanical, electrical, software, and outreach, mirroring the structure of professional space projects.
Joel Åström, as project manager, oversees the team’s progress, sets schedules, ensures adherence to timelines, and addresses challenges as they arise.
"Over the past six months working on GLITCH, I’ve learned so much about managing a project like this and the key aspects of such a position," he says.
"Collaborating with ESA, we follow a structured schedule of deadlines for design, testing, construction, and ultimately, launch. It’s incredibly rewarding, and we benefit greatly from their documentation methods, workflows, and general knowledge about space—what works and what doesn’t."
The GLITCH team has already visited the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, where they presented their project to a panel of experts and were selected to fly on the BEXUS balloon. In February, members will travel to Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, to attend a workshop and present the preliminary design for GLITCH.
"Of course, it’s been great fun and incredibly rewarding to work with like-minded individuals who are as passionate about this as I am. We have a lot of fun together as a team, and it feels like being part of something truly special," Joel Åström says.
The Future of GLITCH
In the spring, the team will expand to 15 members to handle the build phase and prepare the experiment for launch. Work has already begun on design, CAD drawings, and electronic solutions, and the first physical components will soon be tested.
With ambitions to contribute to the development of the space industry, GLITCH combines passion, research, and technical innovation. It’s a project that demonstrates how academic dreams can, quite literally, take flight to new heights.
REXUS/BEXUS is a collaboration between the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) and the Swedish National Space Agency. The purpose of REXUS/BEXUS is to provide students from European universities with the opportunity to conduct scientific and technical experiments using research rockets and high-altitude balloons.
REXUS is a research rocket that is launched from Esrange Space Center.
BEXUS consists of high-altitude balloons that are also released from Esrange Space Center.
The balloons fly at an altitude of 20-30 kilometers for approximately five hours.
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