Team R3D3 Final Presentation Devon Campbell Greg McQuie Kate Kennedy Henk Wolda Marisa Antuna Nicole Ela Tyler Smith 12/1/11

Mission Overview MISSION Test and compare a solar panel power system and a propeller power system Measuring temperature Taking pictures WHY? To understand which power generation system is most effective under different environments

Design Overview: Hardware Gear Motor ArduinoVoltage Sensor HOBO Heater Batteries Camera

Design Overview - Hardware

Functional Block Diagram

Design Overview How it Worked Propeller spins gear motor, generates current voltage measured by voltage sensor recorded by Arduino Solar panels wired into voltage sensor recorded by Arduino Differences from Proposal placement and shape of propeller placement of solar panels

Successes Temperature Data 467 pictures Structure performed admirably Great team work Used our failure to gather info Tropopause Burst Launch Landing

Failures Arduino Micro controller failed to operate No experimental data collected Propeller was no longer attached to the Cubesat Internal components detached from walls Internal temperature dropped below -10C Camera shifted and disconnected during flight

Failure Analysis Failure was due to a high resistance solder joint on pin 8 of the MicroSD shield. Earlier tests had shown the MicroSD shield to be unreliable at initializing the SD card. Resetting the Arduino always had fixed the problems during our tests. Naturally, as we were preparing for the flight our normal fix no longer worked. Since the electronics occasionally worked and occasionally did not, we thought it had to be a hardware problem rather than a software problem. After testing and resoldering the bad connection, the BalloonSat runs flawlessly with no MicroSD initialization errors.

Failure Analysis (Continued) We believe that the propeller disconnected due to too much torque being applied perpendicular to the direction of its rotation in the jet stream. Reinforcing the propeller to make a better connection can solve this problem. The failures with the internal components and camera we believe occured at burst. Judging from the pictures, the time the camera stopped working was right after burst. Therefore, we think all the electronics came disconnected at that time. More glue and tape can solve this problem. Extra heaters and insulation can solve the problem with the internal temperature dropping below -10 degrees celcius.

Conclusions Discoveries: Solder joints are extremely important (need to check all solder connections) Electrical tape doesn't secure things as well as duct tape Explore all possible causes of failure from tests Flight was a lot more violent than previously expected (everything really needs to be secure) Wrap Up: didn't get any data about experiment learned the value of testing figured out what failed

Appendix Lessons Learned Test more Tape everything securely Put more planning into designs before building Real flight simulation To get different results we would... Test the hardware thoroughly Create a different propeller using different materials or different design

Appendix Ready to Fly (Take 2) Storage: payload should be in safe area Payload should not be resting on propeller Activation: Before flight check batteries Turn on heater and arduino switches Press the red button to turn on camera

Appendix Requirements Compliance

Appendix Mass Summary Foam Core Insulation HOBO Aluminum Tape Velcro/Hot Glue Flight Tube Camera Solar Panels Propeller Arduino Uno SD Shield SD Card Heater Voltmeter DC generator 9 Volt Batteries Item Mass (g) Total Mass 893 grams (excess mass was borrowed from another team)

Appendix Cost Summary Solar Panels Propeller Arduino Uno SD Shield SD Card Voltmeter DC generator 9 Volt Batteries Dry Ice Made Donated Donated 5 Item Cost (including shipping) Total cost: $227.18

Appendix Message to Next Semester Gateway to Space was a good introduction to aerospace engineering because it covered multiple aspects of the discipline. It was a lot of work though and sticking to the scheduled is really important. Having a good team with members who attend meetings helps make the experience better.