1. RockSat-C 2011 Final Presentation RockSat-C 2011 Optical Mass-Fuel Gauge Colorado State University Abigail Wilbourn, Isaiah Franka, Jordan Rath, Micheal Yeager June 21 st, 2011

2. RockSat-C 2011 Final Presentation Team Overview 2 Abby was in charge of the on-board data storage, reports and the endless teleconferences. Jordan was in charge of mechanical design and manufacturing. Isaiah was in charge of the optical system. Mike was in charge of the electronics.

3. RockSat-C 2011 Final Presentation Mission Overview Colorado State University’s payload is, in essence, a gas gauge for spacecraft. Current methods for measuring liquid consumable levels in space are lacking. Our payload uses an optical interferometer to measure the empty volume in a tank, thereby measuring the amount of remaining fuel. 3

4. RockSat-C 2011 Final Presentation Design Overview 4

5. RockSat-C 2011 Final Presentation Design Overview 5

6. RockSat-C 2011 Final Presentation Design Overview 6

7. RockSat-C 2011 Final Presentation Expected Results 7 Piston Compression Causes Interference Fringes Retrieve fringe data which allows for accurate calculation of tank ullage volume

8. RockSat-C 2011 Final Presentation Lessons Learned Fiber-pigtailed lasers may be required to survive vibration Polarization-maintaining fibers may also be required PCB boards for electronics may help reliability over having many wires Divide and conquer is not always best, make sure more then one person is familiar with each component of your payload Cannot test enough… 8

9. RockSat-C 2011 Final Presentation Conclusions Laboratory tests have demonstrated the feasibility of our interferometric method Fiber-optic systems can be difficult to make robust on a low budget Hopefully it works! 9