Payload Development
Department Head: Erik Tormoen
Our challenge is an ongoing evolution in the development of reliable payloads that will assist in monitoring our rocket's performance, as well as gathering valuable data from our launches. These payloads consist of (but are not limited too) GPS tracking, Temperature Sensing, Pressure Sensing, Altitude, Speed, Video Recording, etc. We are also responsible for the Ground Tracking and Receiving Stations.
Fall 2004 - From previous Weather Balloon experiments we were fortunate to have a basic payload already made. It consists of a GPS RX/TX, modem MX-614, Basic Stamp Micro controller & Temperature Sensor. Our current mission is to clear up our signal so as to receive less "noise". An attempt to do this will be by way of implementing a 2 filter system.
The first filter will be directly connected to the ground station and will be an Analog Bandpass Filter, while the second filter will be a Digital Bandpass Filter (programmed in C++). We will be getting the parts to do this in the near future. We have not yet been able to conduct a long range GPS test of our payload, because our GPS Antenna was borrowed and has not yet returned. We plan on getting it back soon, or buying another one, to conduct this test.
Spring 2005 - Our goals for this semester are as follows: Develop or purchase a 2.4 GHz transmitter and receiver and test for all around payload/ground station functionality. These tests, including camera and GPS, will be conducted on another model rocket and/or a Super Loki that we have access to through FSA (Florida Space Authority). A request for payloads has come from FSA and hopefully we will be able to do a long range test of our equipment.
Current Projects:
Onboard camera:
The onboard camera fits in the nose cone for an excellent ground coverage.
Drag your mouse over the black screen to play video.
We
plan to buy two cameras in order to have a horizon view as well as a ground view.
The picture
to the right is the hi-gain model rated up to 18,000ft, with booster vision's optional hi-gain grid dish.
We plan to use a hi-gain dish that we already have to create a series
of antenna's that are capable of reaching the desired 300,000ft range. This
leads to another problem, as our dish antenna operates with only a 5° cone
of focus. So until the rocket reaches a certain altitude we are dealing with a dish that
has awesome gain, but a very focused scope. So the team has discovered a group of amateur dish owners
who have created the perfect solution. These hardcore
dish guys have made their own automated signal acquiring system and they are
charging reasonable prices for this system. The system uses a given GPS coordinate
to locate where a "Satellite" is and aims the dish in that direction.
They claim an accuracy of 1°. This is fortunate for
us because
we are receiving GPS coordinates from our GPS payload. If we use their system
we will have a theoretically working system. This does pose the
idea that other systems depend on the GPS payload. The GPS
payload is now more important than before and should be treated as such. Including
redundant systems might be necessary to ensure success.
Filters:
Updated: 01/13/2005 :
The RLC filter seen below seems to be the chosen path for now. We are currently trying to use a center frequency of 402MHz. Well here are the updates for the filter project.
We have come up with two different circuits as filters. These two filters use component values that are manufactured..
The freq. response is as follows:
The links below are links to the resources currently being used in the filter projects.
http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~fisher/mkfilter/
http://www.lvr.com/parport.htm
Finance &
Business Administration
Launchpad
Development & Construction Rocket
Development & Construction
For problems or questions regarding this Web site contact
Webmaster.
Last updated:
01/13/05.