Gateway to Space ASEN/ASTR 2500 Fall 2010
Colorado Space Grant Consortium
Gateway to Space
Fall 2010
Design Document – Revision C
Team Big Green SpaceGasm
Written by:
Hillary Beltran, Edward Crawford, Nicole Harris, Edward Lowe, Emily Proano, and Kevin Wong
01 November 2010
Revision C
Revision Log
Revision / Description / DateA/B / Conceptual and Preliminary Design Review / 05 October 2010
C / Critical Design Review / 02 November 2010
D / Analysis and Final Report / 04 December 2010
Table of Contents
1.0 Mission Overview 4
2.0 Requirements Flow Down 5
3.0 Design 6
4.0 Management 11
5.0 Budget 13
6.0 Test Plan and Results 13
7.0 Expected Results 20
8.0 Launch and Recovery 22
Team Big Green SpaceGasm Page 2 of 22 August 23, 2010
Clean Air Project Revision A/B Rev A
Gateway to Space ASEN/ASTR 2500 Fall 2010
1.0 Mission Overview
The Big Green SpaceGasm (BGSG) mission is to take measurements of select greenhouse gases in order to document the quality of air in the form of the concentration of harmful gases between the launch site altitude and approximately thirty kilometers. We are measuring, specifically, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane gases with three individual gas sensors.
Team BGSG chose to study carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane because these gases are three major air pollutants in the atmosphere and can have adverse effects on people’s health. The team also chose these three gases due restrictions we faced with resources. These three sensors were readily available to our team at affordable prices, whereas the team was unable to find sensors for other known air pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides.
Carbon monoxide is toxic to humans because carbon monoxide molecules bind themselves to hemoglobin in red blood cells more efficiently than oxygen. This prevents oxygen from being transported throughout the body. According to the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety, methane, when present at high concentrations – above fifty-thousand parts per million – acts as an asphyxiant, which displaces oxygen in the air and cause symptoms of oxygen deprivation. In reference to Science Daily – an online periodical – carbon dioxide, while the gas does not directly one’s health, does cause temperature and water vapor to rise, which then traps and increases ground-level ozone concentrations. Ozone, in turn, acts as an irritant and can harm one’s respiratory system.
Team BGSG decided to investigate the proposed mission objective because of the team’s interest in the quality of the air. Given recent developments and the transition to more environmentally sustainable resources and fuel options, as well as the recent forest fires in Fourmile Canyon, Colorado; Loveland, Colorado; Grand County, Colorado; and Boulder Canyon, Colorado, the team is interested in seeing any changes that may have occurred over the past few years. The data the satellite records during the flight will be compared with the data documented by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Air Pollution Control Division, which archived their data for the past several years. Team BGSG will compare our data with their recorded past data. Since the implementation of more environmentally friendly resources was not instigated until recently, team BGSG expects to find the same or increased concentrations of each gas. Team BGSG believes not enough time has passed for the effects of this transition to be fully felt. Otherwise, despite the stagnant or increased concentrations of each gas, the relative quality of air is still healthy and safe.
The experiments that will be run during the flight of our payload will be to take readings of the concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane gas as the payload travels through the different layers of Earth’s atmosphere. Once the mission is complete, the team will retrieve the data from the payload and plot a graph of the concentration of each gas against the altitude in which the reading was taken. To further enhance our analysis, team BGSG will compare the data recorded with the data recorded by the global positioning system device – provided by Edge of Space Sciences – in order to see if the concentration levels of each gas decrease or increase as we move further or closer to the fire areas. This will give the team insight into how the concentrations of gas vary with altitude. This may potentially be significant in the final data analysis, but the team would have to deduce the significance of any changes that are measured during the flight at any altitude. And more importantly, the team would be able to compare the data it retrieved with that of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Air Pollution Control Division, so that team BGSG may determine the effects of the world’s transition to more environmentally sustainable resources. The data collected by this sensor suite during its maiden flight can be used as the standard from which to compare data recorded from future flights. This would help the team monitor the developments of the world’s transition to more environmentally sustainable resources and fuel options, as aforementioned.
2.0 Requirements Flow Down
The following table outlines the requirements that must be met in order to ensure a successful mission flight. The top level requirements are derived from the general mission requirements and the team mission statement (M.S.). These top level requirements must be met in order to fulfill mission and science objectives. The lower level requirements are derived from the top level requirements and are more directly related to the mission objective of team Big Green SpaceGasm.
Level / Number / Derivation / Description0
(M.S.) / 1 / M.S. / Payload must ascend to an altitude of approximately thirty kilometers with a balloon provided by the Edge of Space Sciences
2 / M.S. / Payload must collect and store science data related to the mission objective
3 / M.S. / The payload must carry an active heater system, keeping the internal temperature of the payload above -10°C
4 / M.S. / The payload must be constructed from foam core
5 / M.S. / The total mass of the payload must not exceed 850 grams and the budget of the project must not exceed three-hundred dollars.
6 / M.S. / The payload must allow for a HOBO H08-004-02 and the provided external temperature cable
7 / M.S. / The payload must allow for a Canon A570IS Digital Camera with two AA lithium batteries
8 / M.S. / The payload must have contact information written on the external of the payload, alongside an United States flag
9 / M.S. / The team will be ready to launch on November 6, 2010, at Windsor, Colorado, at 6:50 AM.
10 / M.S. / The team shall adhere to all safety procedures outlined in the proposal
1
(S.R.) / 1 / O1 / Payload must remain attached to the flight string during the mission
2 / O7 / The payload must be functional, retrievable, and capable of flying multiple times.
3 / O2 / The payload will carry carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane gas sensors to record the concentrations of each gas at different altitudes
4 / O5 / The entire payload, including all electrical components and structural materials, will weigh 781 grams
5 / O6 / The HOBO H08-004-02 shall measure and record measurements of internal temperature and the provided external temperature cable will record external temperatures during the mission.
6 / O7 / A Canon A570IS Digital Camera will take and store images during the flight.
7 / O2 / Program the Arduino microcontroller with the integrated development environment using the Java programming language
8a / O2 / Interface the carbon monoxide gas sensor to the Arduino microcontroller
8b / O2 / Interface the carbon dioxide gas sensor to the Arduino microcontroller
8c / O2 / Interface the methane gas sensor to the Arduino microcontroller
8d / O2 / Test the functionality of the gas sensors individually and then test the functionality of the sensors integrated together on the Arduino microcontroller by placing the sensors behind the exhaust pipe of a running automobile that belongs to a member of the team.
8e / O10 / The team will adhere to all safety measures and protocol when testing system functionality.
9 / O2, O3 / Provide the necessary power to each electrical component and ensure that the recorded data is being properly stored
10 / O1, O2, O3, O4 / Create a structure that can withstand the forces and extreme temperatures experienced during flight
11 / O10 / The team will have a functional and flight-ready payload to turn-in on check-in, November 5, 2010, and launch day, November 6, 2010.
3.0 Design
The team shall meet all general mission requirements by following protocoloutlined in the following passage. First, by measuring three different atmospheric gasses; carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane, the team has created additional experiments. The team will also collect and analyze scientific data provided by the Canon A570IS Digital Camera; and the external temperature cable included with the HOBO H08-004-02. The internal temperature must be kept warmer than -10o C and shall be maintained through the use of the required heater, foam core and insulation. Weight requirements will be adhered to though careful planning and forethought, calculating in the weights of the required camera, HOBO, heater. As of now, the weight is below the requirement at 760 grams. General mission requirements related to budget shall be adhered to through following the budget plan laid out by Emily Proano. The budget plan laid out shall include spare parts and all hardware ordered shall be ordered through on Professor Chris Koehler’s University of Colorado MasterCard by appointment in order to make purchases easier and to limit reimbursement paperwork. Any additional purchases made and paid by team members shall have receipts and shall submit reimbursement papers within sixty days or purchase or will be subject to income taxes. Prior to launch on November 6, 2010, at 6:50 AM, team BGSG will place Gateway to Space contact information and a United States flag clearly and visibly on the exposed portion of the structure of the payload. All of the team members will be in attendance for launch because the team shall have practiced all of the safety precautions laid out by Nicole Harris, assuring that no one will be injured. Though only one team member is required to be at recovery, it is safe to say that the whole team hopes to be there and hopes to have completed launch and recovery by 3:00 PM. The balloon satellite shall be built out of the provided foam core and shall be sturdy enough to survive the violence of burst and reentry and remain attached to the string during normal circumstances, thus returning largely undamaged, functioning and able to fly again, and guarded against injury due to damaged and falling balloon satellite. The payload will also be connected to the flight string using a non-metal tube through the center of the structure so as not to damage the payload or interfere with the flight string. This will also allow the team to return all hardware to the Gateway to Space Program in working order at the end of the semester. After launch and the return of hardware, team Big Green SpaceGasm will create a final report including video footage of our processes, successes and failures.
Some of the limitations of our design will be whether or not our heater system will be able to adequately heat the electrical components. Given that our gas sensors will be directly exposed to the atmospheric environment and have a minimum operating temperature of -20°C, the heater system must heat the gas sensors so that the sensors can function while also providing adequate heat to the microcontroller and HOBO. With the limitations caused by heating, the system may require additional heaters to provide the necessary heating, which then requires addition power and increases the mass of the payload. This then creates a possible limitation on the weight capacity of the sensor suite.
3.1 Required Hardware
Most of the hardware required for this experiment is not provided. We plan to order all required hardware online mainly from SparkFun.com, however other materials such as dry ice and batteries will be purchased wherever we can get them for the cheapest.
· Arduino Duemilanove ATMega328 Microcontroller Board purchased from SparkFun Electronics for $29.95 at http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=666.
o Arduino Board with USB interface to run Java written software in order to collect and store data from camera and sensors.
· CO2 sensor purchased from SparkFun for $19.99 at http://www.parallax.com/Store/Sensors/GasSensors/tabid/843/CategoryID/91/List/0/SortField/0/Level/a/ProductID/616/Default.aspx.
Measures carbon dioxide from levels of 350ppm to 10000ppm.
· CH4 senor purchased from SparkFun for $4.95 at http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9404.
o Measures methane gas from levels of 200 ppm to 10000ppm.
· CO sensor purchased from SparkFun for $4.95 at http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9403.
o Measures carbon monoxide from levels of 20ppm to 2000ppm.
· microSD card will be purchased at cheapest price from http://www.amazon.com. (~$10)
· The breakout board for the microSD card with microSD slot purchased from SparkFun for $14.95 at http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=544.
The microSD card will fit inside the slot on this breakout board in order to store data. Special open source Arduino code will enable us to read and write to this SD card.