Well this past week has been pretty eventful for CAPE, with two major events. The first of which was Nick and I presenting the Sputnik Lite slideshow to a group of teachers attending a conference on Education on UL Campus, and launching a version of Sputnik Lite, which I call PartySat I, given that we’re using party balloon. Below are some pictures from the presentation and launch.
Nick Presenting the Sputnik Lite Project
A Volunteer Teacher pointing the Antennae in the direction of where we’re releasing PartySat.
and there she goes into the skies….
We’re not entirely certain just yet what happened to PartySat, but if you happen across a small transceiver attached to remains of four party sized balloons, please contact us. Data from the launch will be up in a few days.
In other news, last night Matthew Triche, Dustin Muse, Blake Deville and I went to the Red Cross Center in Scott, and took our Technician’s Ham Operator Exam, and we all passed. So just a quick congratulations to everyone!
In addition to building satellites, Nick and students from CAPE are actively seeking future satellite builders and engineers even in elementary schools. One method of reaching these students and getting them involved in science is through the Sputnik Lite balloon launch. A small radio transmitter is attached to a helium filled party balloons and released. The transmitter then sends down pulses of RF to relay temperature information to a groundstation. Students then decode the temperature information to observe the changes in temperature over altitude.
Temperature vs. Altitude of a Balloon
Nick’s presentation and spreadsheet are available here:
Recently members of the CAPE team traveled to San Luis Obispo, California to visit the California Polytechnic State and attend the 6th Annual Cubesat Developer’s Workshop. The group consisted of Matthew Barousse, Trey Olivier, Taylor Maronge, Dustin Meyers, Rizwan Merchant and Nick Pugh. The trip was a great success, and a lot was accompliced from Matt and Trey’s presentation on the Applications of a Software Defined Radio in Space, and the amount of knowledge the team as a whole learned from the different teams in attendence. Below are some photos taken at the conference, and trip in general.
Matt and Trey presenting their presentation.
Group Photo of the CAPE team at CalPoly. Left to right: Trey Oliver, Rizwan Merchant, Taylor Maronge, Matthew Barousse, Dustin Meyer, Nick Pugh
Picture of us driving down the coastline back to Los Angeles after the conference.
On behalf of the C.A.P.E., I would like to thank the Calpoly team for an awesome conference, and hope to see them next year for the 7th Annual Cubesat Developer’s Workshop!
Recently CAPE members were interviewed by students studying broadcasting, in front of a camera, and had their segment air on the Acadiana Open Channel. Video below:
Yesterday, members of the CAPE team and myself went to Paul Breaux Middle School to deliver the ping pong balls they had Balloon 2 fly this past weekend, and tell our tales of the launch, tracking and recovery processes. Needless to say the kids had a blast, and were pretty excited to have their payload back. Below are some photos of the visit to Paul Breaux.
After weeks of long and hard work by Balloon 2, and support from the CAPE team, and many stressful hours of late night work, Balloon 2, Crawsat I, was launched today, January 31st, 2009, from Lake Charles. Launch Photos Below:
The Balloon was released at approximately 8:34 AM, with a course towards Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Below is the course of the final descent, and landing into the Mississippi River (of all places in the area!), after the cut down mechanism was initiated.
After an hour of scanning the river attempting a sighting, we finally got a visual near Sunshine Bridge (great name! :D), and were able to get the payload back after recieving help from small boat near by. Photos of Recovery below:
The Balloon was recovered at approximately 12:35PM. We will be posting more photos of the launch, and videos of the launch and recovery in the coming days, so be on the look out for more posts from myself and other people with videos and photos.
Once again, I’d like to thank all the members of the Launch, Tracking, and Recovery teams, and those that took time out to track the Balloon alongside us from their respective homes and offices, your support was invaluable in making this operation all the more successful. Also special thanks to our friends Jim and Damon from LSU, who helped us get a barge to go to the center of the river to recover our payload package, and the National Weather Service, and Jimmy Nunn, the Hydrometeorological Technician, who helped set up the balloon for launch.
Also one more thank you is in order, for the Balloon 2 team as a whole, along with the other members of CAPE involved in the work leading up to today. Without your hard work, and dedication, late at night and all weekend, over the last month, we would never have had such a successful mission!
Sincerely, Rizwan MerchantFlight Director for Balloon 2
Today, Chris Mancuso, and myself (Rizwan Merchant) accompanied Mr. Darby from the Electrical Engineering Department of ULL to give a presentation to The Louisiana School for Math, Science & the Arts, located in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The topic of the presentation was CAPE and the other student projects in the Electrical Engineering Department. Below are a few photos we took of the presentation.
Well yesterday, January 16th, 2009, we tested the parachute for Balloon 2. Our first test used a can of dried up cement. Photos Below:
On top of the building before throwing out the parachute.
The Parachute has been deployed…
and lands safely!
After the initial test, our general consensus was the parachute did not have a heavy enough package, and didn’t deploy quick enough. So to remedy this, we took a coke can, and filled it with gravel and repeated the test again.
Photos Below:
Chris gets ready for the second trial.
and down it comes, more efficently, and deploys quicker.
Balloon 2 is on a tight schedule. We’re launching the 31st of January, and not everything is put together yet. Because of this, vital systems are being pushed for completion first. Still, others are hard at work with sensors and data collection tools, trying to get them ready in time as well.
As for Sensors - Joseph has been working on trying to get the temperature and pressure sensors up. The on board temperature sensor is working great now, and he’s been busy getting the external temperature sensor and a pressure sensor on-line.
Here’s a shot of the external temperature sensor board. It’s an i2c based Maxim 6633 - the same chip as the internal sensor. The header is carrying i2c clock and data signals, as well as power and ground.
This is our pressure sensor. It’s an analog device, so it’s plugged into a header that interfaces with the PIC’s ADC (Analog to Digital Converter).
Jeremy and Nick have also been working a good bit on getting the cameras up and taking pictures/video with remote commands. It’s starting to look good, and they have a board wired up and are currently testing. They are using a 2222n transistor and raising TTL logic line high on the PIC that is connected to the Base pin of the transistor. This allows current to flow from the Collector to the Emitter, simulating a button push to either turn on the camera, or start recording video. Here’s a shot of the test setup.
It’s coming along great, and everything is on track for a January 31st launch. Here’s one last picture - the board powered up and transmitting a basic location beacon:
