Project Atmospheric Sounding

Gateway to Space

Fall 2006

RFC

Andrew Berg, Shawn Carroll, Cody Humbargar,

Jade Nelson, Jared Russell, Austin Williamson

Table of Contents

  1. Mission Statement and Overview
  2. Design Concept
  3. What we are proposing
  4. What we will discover
  1. Technical Overview
  2. Design
  3. Special features

3. Illustration

4. Hardware involved

5. Construction

6. Pre-tests Involved

7. Safety

8. Launch day

9. Block Diagram

10. Proposal Requirements

11. Mass Budget

III. Management and Cost Overview

1. Schedule/ Organizational chart

  1. Design
  2. Hardware
  3. Prototyping design
  4. Testing final design

2. Team Info

  1. How to keep Budget
  2. Detailed budget

Mission Statement- “Sound at the Outer Reaches”

For our primary science mission, Team Echo III plans to measure the decline in acoustic transmissivity of the atmosphere with relation to altitude. In addition to the implementation of the standard hardware provided by COSGC, our team will incorporate an infrared photography system, which will capture images of Earth in that spectrum.

For our experiment we want to find out what kind of effect the atmosphere has on how sound travels though the air. Our sound system will test a method for minimizing the noise caused by turbulence, abrupt changes in atmospheric pressure and also vibration transmitted through the structure as well.

With two cameras at our disposal, we have decided to capture infrared photographs with our secondary. With our IR camera we hope to capture impressive photographs of the earth in this spectrum. Our main camera will face in the same direction, allowing comparison and identification of various surfaces.

With our sounding system, we expect to verify that declining atmospheric pressure, not a drop in temperature alone, impairs the transmission of sound. The results may show this decline to be nonlinear.

Technical Overview

Design and Special Features

The basic form of this structure will be a 10 by 10 by 12 cm rectangle prism. Since the optics portion of this mission depends on comparison between images taken with the regular and IR camera, both cameras need to be mounted facing the same direction, and as close to one another as possible. In order to keep the center of mass as close to the spatial center as possible, the face that exposes the lenses will be recessed. This will also provide some degree of protection from glare.

On the interior, the science experiment needs to be isolated from vibration and shock transmitted through the structure. To that end, the tube containing that experiment will be set away from the other components, and suspended by tension springs in a diamond pattern (see illustration below).

The remaining components will be grouped as tightly as possible to each other to minimize contact with the near-vacuum of our destination. The grouping is arranged with signal flow and minimizing wire length in mind. All of the instrumentation for this mission will slide in as a unit, to enable ease of access to all components. Since the unit will then depend primarily on the central tube for its location, soft foam between the inner structure and the tube should bring us home whole.

Noise isolation is a big concern with this experiment because the rush of air past the outside of the box will interfere with our sound collection and there are three features which serve this purpose. First, the experiment is shock mounted as a unit. Being soft-mounted to the interior of the tube further isolates the pickup transducer. It is structurally insulated from the output transducer by a soft tube connecting the two rigid tubes.

Control of atmospheric variables is also essential to this experiment. Control of atmospheric venting should eliminate noise created by turbulence and wind on the exterior of Echo Sat III, and eliminate humidity as a variable. We will employ a tube system that moderates airflow, and removes humidity by venting through two loosely-packed, absorbent slugs on either side of a quantity of desiccant.

Illustration:

Back Open Front Closed

Above- Top Open Right- Spring Science

Hardware Involved

For the structure of the CubeSat Echo III will need one sheet of foam core for walls and partitions. Space Blankets, springs (2), PVC Tube and Tubing will also be needed, for insulation and our sound and shock absorber system. For the optics portion of the experiment we will use the one given camera that is, plus one additional, which we will be using to take infrared pictures. These cameras will be attached to a timing circuit that is, whose tallest part is 22 mm. For the sounding experiment Echo III will be using the Rat and Cockroach Banisher Kit to produce a sound. This we will obtain through qkits.com and it is 50x30 mm by about 15 mm high. To pick up the sounds emitted by the Rat/Roach Kit we will be using a Condenser Microphone Kit with Pre-amp, also from qkits.com. Echo III will also have a tube and washer system so the cord can pass through the system. We will have a heater, 38x44x22mm and HOBO that have been provided, as well as a possible second HOBO to collect data.

Construction

For the building of our satellite Austin and Andrew will be doing the structure and spring system for the sound. Jared and Shawn will be putting together the sound experiment, and making sure that it fits within the satellite. Andrew will doing the majority of the soldering on our satellite and will modify the camera. Jade will help with the placement of the cameras and with putting on the necessary filters. Cody will help with both the camera and structure and will also be in charge of putting all the information together for the necessary documents. Austin will be in charge of conducting the testing of the satellite.

Pre-tests Involved

Before we send our satellite into near-space, we will first perform some pretests to ensure that our structure and hardware will work with all the different forces and changes it will face. The first test we will perform is the functional test to make sure everything is in working order. Next we will do a subsystems test. After these two tests, we will test the structure by both dropping it and “whipping” it. The drop test will be preformed by dropping it off a building, and to conduct the whip test we will swing it around our head, and bring it to an abrupt stop, perhaps by hitting a wall. Next, we will perform a cold test to insure that the interior of the box will stay above zero degrees Celsius, and that the hardware will function at this temperature. If any other test is needed we will test for it at that time.

Safety

Echo III feels that safety is essential for having a successful mission. For this reason, we have laid out some guidelines in order to remain safe. First and foremost, always be careful around solder iron and hot glue gun. Next, we will always protect our hands and faces when working with chemicals and dry ice. Additionally, we plan to always take everything serious. On launch day, any team members not involved in the launch will stand behind those launching the CubeSat.

Launch Day

On launch day, our team is planning on meeting before 5:00 am for the 5:15 departure time. During the car ride there we will conference to make sure everything is in order and ready to launch. Once we arrive in Windsor, we will perform all preflight inspections, making sure batteries are ready, switches are on, etc. Once these inspections are preformed, any adjustments that need to be made will be done quickly. Once accomplished we will shut the cube and tape it up. Also during launch day we plan to bring a video recorder to tape all the events that take place during the day. Later we will make it into a presentation, which will be turned in with the final results.

Block Diagram:

Proposal Requirements-

In this proposal we were required to get between seven and ten pages. Our 9 pages fit perfectly with in this limit. Additionally, we were asked to keep the font in Times and point 12, both of which we did. Next, we needed to include team name and page number in the footer and then a project name in the header. Furthermore, we were requested to keep the page margins to one inch, which we followed. At the end of this proposal we included a detailed schedule and budget. We are also closely monitoring budgets for mass and money. At the moment we are in the process of contacting the balloon people to get ascent and decent rates.

Mass Budget

One of the factors that must be thought about when building the satellite is its mass. To ensure that we keep under the weight limit, Echo III has placed Cody in charge of recording of how much everything weighs. To do this, each team member will be submitting the weight of what they are working on to him. With this information, he will be able to keep track of the total weight and how much is remaining to work with using a spreadsheet. Throughout our building we will be very careful with how much we are putting and will keep to the minimum requirement at which we will be fully operational, in order to save weight. Once we receive our hardware, we will be able to derive a more precise budget. Here is a rough estimate:

Team Echo III Mass
Item / Weight / Left
Starting / 800 g / 800g
Science / 10g / 790g
Hull / 45g / 745g
Batteries / 225g / 520g
Rat/Roach / 30g / 490g
Microphone / 30g / 460g
Heater and Timing Circuit / 35g / 425g
Camera 1 / 116g / 309g
Camera 2 / 250g / 59g
HOBO / 15g / 44g
Miscellaneous / 44g / 0g

Management and Cost Overview

Schedule and Organizational Chart

To ensure that plans are getting accomplished on schedule, Echo III plans on having one meeting a week. A detailed schedule is below. If complications arise, more will be scheduled. For our meetings we meet in the ITLL in a reserved room so that we are not distracted. During these times, we will discuss each other’s individual projects, get input on what to do, and work together to solve what ever issues arise. Shawn is acting as project organizer, and will be the one making sure we have scheduled meeting times every week.

System/Project / Task / Team Member / Projected Completion / Due
Main / CoDR / Austin / 9/20/2006 / 9/21/2006
Main / Proposal / Cody / 9/20/2006 / 9/21/2006
ATP/Feedback / CoSGC / 9/28/2006
Main / Complete System Designs Rev A / All / 9/29/2006
Main / Finalize BOM / All / 9/29/2006
Main / Finalize Mass and $$ Budget / Cody / 9/29/2006
Main / Complete Individual Systems / By System / 10/6/2006
Main / Test: Bench (Individual Systems) / By System / 10/6/2006
Main / Design Document Rev A / All / 10/8/2006 / 10/9/2006
Main / Integrate Systems / All / 10/8/2006
Main / Test: Bench (All together now!) / All / 10/8/2006
Main / Integration into Structure / Berg et al / 10/8/2006
Main / CDR + Design Document Rev B / All / 10/15/2006 / 10/17/2006
Main / Design Document Rev C / All / 11/7/2006 / 11/9/2006
Main / LRR / All / 11/7/2006 / 11/9/2006
Main / Turn In / All / 11/7/2006 / 11/10/2006
Science / Decide on Experiment / All / 9/19/2006
Science / Signal Gen/Output / Shawn
Science / Signal Receive/Input / Jared
Science / Complete System Designs Rev A / Shawn + Jared / 9/29/2006
Science / Complete Individual Systems / Shawn + Jared / 10/6/2006
C&DH / Complete System Designs Rev A / Cody / 9/29/2006
C&DH / Complete Individual Systems / All / 10/6/2006
Power / System Overview / 9/19/2006
Power / Obtain Power Requirements / Jared / 9/29/2006
Power / Complete System Designs Rev A / Jared / 9/30/2006
Power / Complete Individual Systems / Jared et al / 10/6/2006
Structure / 3d Models (Preliminary) / Berg / 9/19/2006
Structure / 3d Models (Add mass + density) / Berg / 9/29/2006
Structure / Complete System Designs Rev A / Berg and Austin / 9/30/2006
Structure / Fabricate Pieces / Austin and Berg / 10/6/2006
Structure / Complete Individual Systems / Austin / 10/6/2006
Optics / Filter Choice/System Overview / Jade / 9/19/2006
Optics / Complete System Designs Rev A / Jade / 9/30/2006
Optics / Complete Individual Systems / Jade/Cody / 10/6/2006
Hardware / Acquire all hardware / All / ASAP- 10/6/2006
Testing / Subsystems / All / 10/13/2006
Testing / Functional / All / 10/13/2006
Testing / Drop / All / 10/15/2006
Testing / Whip / All / 10/15/2006
Testing / Cold / All / 10/20/2006
Testing / Any Additional Tests / All / 10/22/2006

Team Information

Andrew Berg- Andrew is an aspiring aerospace engineer from Fort Collins, Colorado and is 26 years old. His birthday is on June 5, 1980 and enjoys Polynesian fire dancing and guitar. His favorite movie is Cat Soup and he is interested in space because the age of exploration of Earth by sailing ships taught the human race so many things. He believes the exploration of space will someday play an equally prominent role in our history, and because nothing is as exciting as the unknown.

Shawn Carroll- Shawn is a student in aerospace engineering from Longmont, Colorado and is 20 years old. His birthday is on November 18, 1985 and he enjoys playing the acoustic guitar. His favorite movie is Back to the Future I and he is interested in space because there is so much more then our planet out there.

Cody Humbargar- Cody is in the aerospace engineer program and is from Denver, Colorado. He is 18 years old, and his birthday is on December 4, 1987. He enjoys playing soccer and watching all other types of sports. His favorite movie/series are all the James Bond. He is interested in space because it is something that is really just in its beginning stages and it looks like way more fun then any other engineering.

Jade Nelson- Jade is looking to become an aerospace engineer and is from Boulder, Colorado. He is 17 years old and his birthday is on November 13, 1988. He enjoys the saxophone and piano and is amazing at the videogame “Halo”. His favorite movie is the Shawshank Redemption and he is interested in space because very little is know about it and because he enjoys science fiction.

Jared Russell- Jared is an undergraduate aerospace engineer from Highlands Ranch, Colorado and is 19 years old. His birthday is on July 23, 1987 and he enjoys Bass guitar and photography. His favorite movie is Serenity and he is interested in space because he has been a science fiction fan his entire life.

Austin Williamson- Austin is a prospering aerospace engineer for Lewisville, Colorado. He is 18 years old and his birthday is on June 22, 1988. In his spare time he likes working with computers and flying. There are too many good movies for him to choose just one favorite and he is interested in space because he would like to be an astronaut some day.

How to Keep Budget

As with the mass budget, Echo III put Cody in charge of watching the finances. Similarly, each team member will give him the prices of equipment and that will be organized using a spreadsheet. Cody will also be the one purchasing all the equipment. All receipts will be kept in a folder and be turned at the completion of the project. A detailed budget with costs of hardware is located below.

Detailed Budget:

Team Echo III Budget
Item Bought / Price / Left
Starting / - / $275
Top of Form
Rat and Cockroach Banisher Kit / $4.95 +shipping / $265
Condenser microphone kit with pre-amp / $4.25 +shipping / $255
Batteries / estimated $40 / $215
IR Film and processing / approx. $30 / $185
PVC and tubes / max $10 / $175
Springs (2) / $20 / $155
IR Camera and filter / $100 / $55
Tube and Washer system / $5 / $50
Miscellaneous / $50 / $0

Echo III, Page 1