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

2. 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

3. 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

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

5. Current Locking/Rigidizing Mech. Design

6. 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 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

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

8. 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?

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

14. Questions?

15. Appendix HABISS Ball Bearing:
Carbon Fiber Kite Tube
Available from .125” to .750” OD
Ideas: