MAE 435 ThinSat Group Status Report Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Overarching Goals of the ODU ThinSat Project Lengthen ThinSat life during re-entry Develop platform for surface temperature sensor implementation Improve pre-flight data collection capabilities

Goals for ThinSat Team 3 (May-December 2018) Rigidizing ThinSat Fanfold/configure aerodynamically Test materials for thermal protection Enable observation of ThinSat/payload during High Altitude Balloon Tests Develop communications package capable of transmitting all gathered data to ground station/Space Data Dashboard

Original Locking Mechanism Failures Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Doesn’t lock in both directions Not rigid Note: Not actual prototype

Current Locking/Rigidizing Mech. Design

Nitinol Sheets/Strips Fan-fold panels 2 x (0.015” thick x 2” wide x 4.25” long) Outer panels 1 x (0.015” thick x 2” wide x 4.19” long) Center panel Nitinol Sheets/Strips Dimension 0.20 mm thick x 3.19 mm wide x 25 mm long Total Amount 8 strips (4 per joint) Epoxy MasterBond Supreme 11AOHT-LO Used to bond each nitinol strip to stainless steel panels

Locking/Rigidizing Mechanism Testing Proposed testing of locking mechanism: Neutral buoyancy High altitude balloon

Thermal Protection Objective Develop and implement a thermal resistance system for the electronics and sensor package to extend the data collection period throughout the Thermosphere. NG-11: Insulate student payload bay with resistive material [Fabrics, RTV, Insulation]. Develop a temperature graph versus other ThinSats. Future Work: Work towards flight control of a ThinSat string. Ablatives?

Stabilization of High Altitude Balloon Background Info: NOAA and balloon challenges have shown that it is possible to stabilize payload and cameras beneath a high altitude balloon to take clear in- focus images well enough to capture the actual balloon burst Objective: Design camera payload that rides beneath High Altitude Balloon (HAB), records downwards towards payload, and returns clear video of payload during flight through improving current camera rigging and stabilizing balloon payload. https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2017/04/04/weather-balloon-explodes/100032066/

Stabilization of High Altitude Balloon Planned Methods: Use a ball bearing swivels Use four equally spaced long cords to connect payload to balloon Attach foam pool noodles to top and bottom of payload increase moment of inertia ~3” diameter, 4’ long, insert carbon fiber kite rods for increased rigidity Foam lessens chance of damage to payload in case of rough landing Place heaviest item at bottom of stack Accomplished Preliminary design is complete Planned Force calculations will be performed on proposed design to prevent failure Prototype design will be built and tested in house Use on High Altitude Balloon test Setbacks: Purchasing of materials

Communications Objectives Accomplished Planned Setbacks Develop a software package that will store and transmit sensor data with a focus on reduced power consumption Integrate additional sensors with supporting code Transmit data collected during space orbit Accomplished Studied the Arduino language Line-by-line evaluation of previous ThinSat team’s communication code Read through documentation on Clumsy and I2C Planned Determine overall power consumption of team’s ThinSat Evaluate amount of data required for mission Setbacks Still waiting for USB datalogger and additional Twiggs Space Lab (TSL) boards Previous team’s TSL board no longer communicates with computer to upload new code Loss of the other Communications subgroup team member

Preparing the Next ThinSat Team · Meeting with ThinSat 4 Introduced our current goals and limitation faced by each subgroup Gaged interest for different project topics May use a few ThinSat 4 team members for ThinSat 3 goals Cross-Team Resources Currently sorting through ThinSat 1 and 2’s Google Drive for unification with our Google Drive Consolidation and reorganization of our Google Drive to unify all current teams’ research and documentation

Questions?

Appendix HABISS Ball Bearing: https://www.fishusa.com/product/Berkley-Ball-Bearing-CrossLok-Snap-Swivels Carbon Fiber Kite Tube Available from .125” to .750” OD https://goodwinds.com/carbon/pultruded-tubes.html Ideas: http://community.balloonchallenge.org/t/ways-to-reduce-spinning-of-payload/378