Embedded Files
Mission Statement
Mission Statement
The mission outline for this year's payload was to iterate and improve on a legacy deployable boom arm and camera system created by the 2019-2021 CC of CO team. The main goal was to capture high definition 360-degree video footage of the rocket flight, including views of skirt deployment, the experimental section at apogee, and splash-down. The primary objectives for improving the previous design were to increase the extension length of the arm from the rocket, to increase the quality and length of the video footage captured, and to optimize the usable deck space for experimentation. The secondary objectives were to explore an avenue of research on the effects of high-altitude radiation on modern computers chips in the form of SEU’s (single event upsets) and obtain data from various sensors during flight to better understand the dynamics and environment of the atmosphere.
Analysis
Analysis
Auxiliary Camera
The auxiliary camera was able to capture one quality photograph during flight showing that the boom arm did indeed extend from the payload deck. Unfortunately, this photo could not prove full extension and therefore full success for this objective. However, based on the data obtained from the distance sensor mounted on the front of the electrical housing, it could be inferred that the arm did reach full extension.
GoPro
The GoPro 360 camera did not record videos during the experiment. Upon retrieval of the payload, the camera was removed from the housing and the SD card taken out. It was noted that the inside of the GoPro contained moisture and evidence of a seawater breach. The outer lens cover of the housing was destroyed during re-entry, allowing seawater to be in direct contact with the camera. In observing the contents of the SD card there were no video files present for the day of the launch. The team has hypothesized several scenarios that could have caused the failure. Preliminary theories are that the GoPro’s battery was dead prior to launch, that there was a malfunction with the Bluetooth signal that turned on the camera, the camera did not receive the power needed to initiate the Bluetooth signal, or it over heated before or during launch.
Sensor Data
Single Event Upset (SEU) Experiment
The Secondary Experiment performed as intended and collected data during many of the ground tests as well as during the flight. However due to a software bug in the file naming method, the team was unable to meaningfully associate the data collected from flight. Many files from test data have been mixed into the data from flight and cannot be unmixed. Due to this unfortunate error, the Secondary experiment was not able to be concluded. This software bug deals with using timestamps within the file names. The error is due to the way Raspberry Pi’s clocks work. If the Pi is not connected to the internet, the clock will be placed back to the last known time each time the Pi is powered on. Because of this fact not being well understood by the team at the time, it was assumed that a timestamp as the name for each file from the FRAM would be sufficient to connect the data to the flight time. However, each time the Pi boots up and runs the flight code, a file with the same exact timestamp would be created. Therefore, there is no way for the team to know what files are associated with the flight or with ground tests
Conclusions
Conclusions
While the primary mission objective was not accomplished, there was still valuable data obtained by the payload for analysis. In that regard, amid the significant failures encountered during flight, there were still great successes. The data obtained indicating the team’s successes include the sensor package data, auxiliary camera images, and qualitative inspection of the payload condition post-flight.
More conclusion and analysis can be found in the report for the project below.
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