In 2011 IAP, argus electronic GmbH, and Institute of General Electrical Engineering at the Rostock University, initiated a new project to develop an active falling sphere (active FS) instrument for high-resolution measurements of density, temperature, and horizontal winds in the middle atmosphere.The new rigid FS was designed to have diameter of 25 cm and it has currently mass of ∼3 kg. The sphere houses three 3-D accelerometers, gyroscope, GPS receivers, Earth magnetic field sensor, and a telemetry system. It has its own ground-based telemetry system to receive the measured data from the sphere in a real-time mode.
Currently, the active FS can be easily integrated in the motor adapter of a sounding rocket and ejected after the motor separation. The integration and the ejection mechanism were specially developed by the DLR-MORABA.