The First Space Postal Service

How do you send a package from space down to Earth without using expensive rockets and fuel? You drop it from space and hope it won't land in the ocean?

Well, not exactly, but close enough. The answer is called YES2 (Young Engineers Satellite) and it's a joint project involving almost five hundred students from the most prestigious universities and the European Space Agency.

"YES2 represents a whole collection of university dissertations and theses. Students have gained valuable hands-on experience that will certainly be put to good use immediately if they should continue in the space industry or come to work for ESA," said ESA project manager Roger Walker from the ESA Education Department.

It's the first form of space mail and an exhibit of the newest technologies. Using a thirty kilometer long tether, the longest cable system ever deployed in space, it's going to be the first time a capsule will be shot back down to Earth.

The project consists of three steps. First, it's the Russian research capsule Foton M3 that will be launched into Earth orbit from the launch base at Baikonur, carrying the YES2.

Then, at an altitude of 260 to 300 kilometers, a 0.5 millimeter thick tether will be rolled out underneath the capsule. It will be so long that it will be visible from Earth in the night sky, from eastern Russia and South America.

The re-entry capsule named Fotino will hang at the end of the cable and will swing until reaching a vertical position, due to the Earth's gravity.

At a precisely calculated moment, the capsule will be released so that the slingshot-like device will send it to a Earth-bound trajectory.

Finally, its destination will be a remote area in Russia, where it will be recovered along with the package it contains, that will most likely arrive in perfect condition, due to the thermal insulation similar to the one used in spacecraft and to the parachutes that will insure a smooth landing.