Cube Root Georgia Institute of Technology Matt Bigelow, Gregory Hansen, Sarah McNeese, Luke Walker

Mission Overview: The Cube Root mission will demonstrate various functionalities of components to be used in the R 3 satellite.  The visible camera will capture images from the edge-of- space environment.  The radiation dosimeter will detect the total ionizing dose of the SHOT II environment.  The flight computer will interface with these two components for command and data handling.  An image processing benchmark will demonstrate one of the major mission objectives of the R 3 satellite.

SHOT II / UNP-6 Connection:  Cube Root shall support R 3 by evaluating component performance in the edge-of-space environment:  Visible camera  Radiation dosimeter (temperature anomalies?)  Flight computer  Cube Root provided fabrication experience:  Soldering and board layout design  Component configuration and wire harnessing  Flight software development.  Cube root provided I&T experience, including physical, thermal, electrical, and functional testing.

SHOT II Design and Test Details:  Basic Components:  Flight Computer (FCS20, DSP-FPGA)  Radiation Dosimeter  Visible Camera (Point Grey Grasshopper)  Power Supply (18 VDC, 5 VDC)  Compliance:  Mass: 1.2 kg  Dimensions: 16 x 18 x 24 cm  Flight String: directly though center of structure, no corners  Testing:  Structural integrity: whip, drop, and stair pitch tests  Dosimeter and visible camera functionality: tested in Micro-C++ with a laptop computer  Image processing benchmark: tested on the flight computer with pre-loaded images.

Expected Results:  The radiation dosimeter may return flipped bits as a result of the radiation environment during flight.  The visible camera will return images from the flight.  The flight computer will return coordinates of the center of brightness of preloaded images.  These same algorithms will be applied to IR images on R 3 to detect thermal boundaries and anomalies

Demonstration:  The image processing algorithm will be demonstrated on the Cube Root flight computer.  Pre-loaded images will represent those to be taken during flight.  The computer will process the images and find the coordinates of the center of brightness.  The output will be the raw image and the desired coordinates, which, when onboard the R 3 satellite, will be used for rapid response.