Testing day

The whole team did work yesterday on the testing phase of our self-made Yagi Antenna. It was a day of hard work, but we managed to make our antenna to work.

We built and developed our antenna aiming to receive data from at least 1.5km distant points. The results were extremely positive, as we received strings of data when the transmitter and the receiver were more than 2km separate.

We used our CanSat kit to transmit some recognizable data. We programmed the Arduino board to emit known strings. These strings were got by the antenna, and the spectrum received was transformed by software in a PC, making these available as readable data.

The testing place was the Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial for the transmitter:

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The receiver was placed on Philip II Seat.

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Which could be the space uses of our CanSat?

 In space, our CanSat could orbit over The Earth taking images with two cameras in order to make a 3D map, showing the landscape of The Earth. The 3D map of the Earth surface is the last step of google to extend our knowledge of our planet.

3D Overview of Denver  for Google Earth

Another use to our project would be to make a 3D map of the zone of the Moon were the rockets lands, by the use of two cameras located on the sides of the rocket. This is similar to the CanSat Competition, because the two cameras will be also placed on a Rocket. Here we can see some images of the lunar landscape.



 Image of the Moon's surface taken in 2009 by Lucian Curelaru



Another image of the lunar landscape.

You can find more information here, or here.
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2012 Texas Annual CanSat Competition

The American Astronautical Society (AAS) and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) have organized an annual student design-build-launch competition for space-related topics. Although similar competitions exist for other fields of engineering (robots, radio-control airplanes, racing cars, etc.), most space-related competitions are paper design competitions. While these are worthwhile, they do not give students the satisfaction of being involved with the end-to-end life cycle of a complex engineering project, from conceptual design, through integration and test, actual operation of the system and concluding with a post-mission summary and debrief. This competition fulfills that need!

This annual competition is open to teams from universities and colleges. Teams must be able to design and build a space-type system, following the approved competition guide. Rockets will be provided but teams are responsible for funding the construction of their CanSat and all travel/lodging expenses.

You can find more information here.
To read this article in Spanish, click here

CanSat Kit

An introductory Teachers Workshop has taken place on 2-3 December at ESA's Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. At this workshop, ESA provided us with a Pratt Hobbies CanSat kit and a CanSat manual.
The CanSat kit includes:

• CanSat structure and all needed hardware. (Soda can is not included)
• Predrilled main board for mounting circuit boards
• Custom machined end disc for closing off the soda can
• Angle bracket for attaching a parachute
• Parachute and eyebolt
• Screws and nuts for mounting everything
• Computer board with processor and connectors for sensors, communications, and expansion.
• Programmable processor that can be programmed in BASIC and C.
• 9 volt battery connector
• Power distribution screw terminal
• Analog input connector
• Digital I/O connector
• Serial interface connector for host PC communications

• Sensor board with a pressure sensor and open sensor port
• Communications board
• Serial interface to processor board
• AX.25 data protocol at 1200 baud
• 5 milliwatts of transmit power
• Wire antenna (can be replaced with SMA connector)
• CD with all needed software and manuals
• Integrated Deveopment Environment for easy software development
• BASIC language user manual
• 85 page lesson with plenty of examples and pictures
• Data sheets for all the components

You can find more details here.

About NAROM

Next April, DeLaCosa CanSat Team will be participating  in the European CanSat Competition in Andenes, Norway. Institutions and organisations holding this event are NAROM and ARR.

NAROM is an educational organisation partly supported by the Norwegian Government formed in 2000 to organize space and science education through competitions, activities and other methods.

NAROM is placed near the Andøya Rocket Range (ARR). The ARR has more than 40 years of scientific rockets and ballons. This facilities are also used for ground based geophysical measurements.

Via NAROM

Artículo en español.
Article en français.

Arduino updates

The well-known prototyping platform was updated some days ago. This new build of Arduino (number 0023) features some changes. The more important ones are:

• Addition of .inf files for R3 boards.
• Update to optiboot 4.4.
• Inclusion of combined firmwares for ATmega16U2.

Although these seem minor updates, this new release of Arduino code is targeted to eradicate some of the bugs present in older releases. It would not be a surprise if this new build has gained in stability and usability.

The code for this version is hosted and available on Google Code

Via arduino HomePage

Via Google Code

Read this article in Spanish
Read this article in French

Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD

A very interesting video about Arduino. This an open-source single-board microcontroller. The CanSat Kit is based on it. And we will use this board in our cansat.


Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.

First High Resolution Global Topographic Lunar Map revealed

Despite the closeness between the Moon and the Earth, no global lunar map had been made until just two days ago.

On the 16th of November the dataset we had been waiting for since the Apollo era, according to Mark Robinson, Principal Investigator of the LROC, was revealed. The LROC (Lunar Recconnaissance Orbiter Camera) is the responsible for taking the pictures. This instrument belongs to a robotic spacecraft orbiting the Moon since 2009 with the aim of identifying safe landing sites, locating potential resources on the Moon, characterizing the radiation environment, and demonstrating new technology.

The LROC is made up of three cameras: two narrow and one wide angular one. A very similar camera to this last (WAC) is being used in another parallel programm around Mars.

The camera orbits at an average altitude of 50km and has a pixel scale of about 75 meters, so a WAC image swath is 70km wide around the ground-track, so it nearly covers the entire lunar surface in around one month. However we don't obtain the same images every month, but with tocks reflecting light under different conditions. This collection of stereo images are the ones that -after being treated- lead as to the final model. 69000 stereo images are need to get it. In spite of this huge amount of information, there are presistent shadows near the poles, but the spacecraft includes a laser altimeter (LOLA) that provides a precise topographic reconstruction since the spacecraft orbits converge at the poles therefore the "pole holes" can be filled.

The model is called GLD100 and covers 98,2% of the lunar surface and it was obtained this way:

The WAC stereo images arecompared one against another by pattern-matching a moving box of pixels until the best fit was found between two images with different viewing angles. Best fit pixel positions are combined with the LRO orbit position and the WAC viewing angles to define two 3D rays (lines of sight). The intersection point of these rays defines the location and the elevation of the point on the surface. Since the correlation box is bigger than 100 meters, surface details at the 100-meter scale are not fully resolved in a single stereo pair. However, each 100 meter square has an average of 26 stereo points within it , which helps to sharpen the elevation estimate. The accuracy of the elevations is estimated to be about 10 to 20 meters. Anyway, this map was built from the first year of stereo imaging, but there is already data corresponding to another year, what will make possible a more accurate model.

This project is related to our CanSat secondary mission, also consisting on creating a 3D map from previously treated images.

Via: NASA

Artículo en español

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Which are the selected teams for the 2012 cansat competition?

The following winning teams will be joined by the winners of the Irish, Italian and Scottish national CanSat competitions.

• Yes, we Cansat! Technical Hight School for Information Thechology. Austria
• DJ AUXAL Tation, Sint-Pieterscollege Jette, Brussels, Belgium.
• Jecnaci, Secondary Technical School SPSE Jecna, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Stella Nova Viking Red One, Haderslev Katedralskole, Haderslev, Denmark.
• SatElite, Lycée Alfred Kastler, Talence, France.
• Icaromenippus 3D, 3rd General Lyceum of Mytilini, Strati Myrivili, Greece.
• The Flying Dutchcan, American International School of Rotterdam (AISR), The Netherlands.
• Navican, Heimdal Videregaende Skole, Trondheim, Norway.
• Azorean Shearwater, EBS Santa Maria, Vila do Porto (Azores), Portugal.
• Bolyai, Székely Mikó Theoretical Hight School, Saint George, Romania.
• DeLaCosa, Colegio Retamar, Pozuelo, Spain.

In adition, two back-up teams have been selected:

• ENFoRCE, Istituto Tecnico Industriale Enrico Fermi, Roma, Italy.
• Aspire, St. Paul's School, London, United Kingdom.

 

You can find more information in http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education/SEMP9AHURTG_0.html

DARPA to introduce a new concept of satellite launch

Currently, there's only one way of launching a satellite: from the ground on a booster rocket. This is an expensive, long process, as it can take several weeks or even months to prepare the launchpad. Furthermore, an unforeseen weather change can scrap the whole preparation.

That's why the ALASA program (Airborne Launch Assist Space Access) by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) seeks to reduce cost, time and weather constraints.

“Current small satellite payloads can cost up to $30,000 per pound to launch, which is unsustainable over the long haul. Even when our increasingly capable small satellites are launched, they are obliged to go to orbits selected by the primary payload on current launchers, rather than to the orbits their designers and operators would prefer,” said Mitchell Burnside Clapp, DARPA program manager.

The vision is for an aircraft to carry the small satellite and its host-booster either inside the aircraft or externally. At the desired altitude and direction the aircraft releases the satellite and booster, which continue their climb into space. A key benefit of such a system is responsiveness to an immediate need. Within a day of being called up, a satellite launch mission could be conducted from a runway anywhere in the world. Another advantage is the flexibility of an aircraft to deliver a satellite into any desired orbit at any time.

Innovative technologies required for the ALASA program include propellant systems, possible in flight liquid oxygen production, flight controls and nozzle designs amongst others.

Among the significant limitations stand the restricted aircraft payload capacity and safety issues related to highly explosive chemicals.

Via: DARPA Press Release

Artículo en español

Article en français

Saint Albert The Great: Patron of Science

On the occasion of the feast of Saint Albert The Great: Patron of Science, we have decided to include in the blog a short biography about this incredible saint and scientific.

Beginning of Saint Albert The Great's live
Saint Albert was born in Launingen, Bayern in the year 1193.
He studied aristotellic philosophy at the university of Padua, where he took his habits of the Saint Domingo of Guzmán's order. He taught in the most prestigious universities of the whole Europe and worked in many convents all over Germany.
In the university of Paris he translated, commented and clasified thosands of old books, mainly related to Aristoteles.

Saint Albert The Great and science
Saint Albert The Great changed completly the idea of experimentation. For him, experimentation consisted on obseving, describing and clasifying. Saint Albert The Great realized and enormous enciclopedic work, constructing with this the basis for his most famous pupil: Saint Tomas of Aquino.
He also worked on Botany and Alchemy, highlighted by the discovery of arsenic in 1250.
In the fields of Geography and Astronomy, he explained that Earth was an sphere.

Bishopric and death
Between 1259 and 1260, he was ordered bishop of Ratisbona, chagethat he would leave soon.
In 1263, The Pope Urbano IV accepted his resignation, letting him return to his old life in the Wurzburg´s community, teaching in Cologne.
He died at the age of 87.
He is buried in the crypt Saint Andrew´s church in Cologne

 Saint Albert The Great canonification
He was beatified in 1622.
In 1872 and 1927, the German bishops asked unsuccesfully for his canonization.
On December 16, 1931, The Pope Pius XI, Proclaimed Saint Albert The Great Doctor of the Churchwich is equivalent to the canonification.

Video from ARLISS 2011

Video from ARLISS 2011

The ARLISS Project is a collaborative effort between students and faculty at Stanford University Space Systems Development Program and other educational institutions, and high power rocketry enthusiasts in Northern California, to build, launch, test and recover prototype satellites, miniaturized to fit inside a soft drink can (hence "CanSats") in preparation for an Earth orbit or Mars orbit space launch.

What is our CanSat going to do?

The principal function that any CanSat has to realize is to take information of pressure and temperature. Every team must develop a secondary function in its CanSat. In our case, the CanSat is going to open two arms with two cameras to take images of the zone where it lands. Once these images are taken, we are going to treat them to make a 3D map.

Due to the fact that last year the rocket in which the CanSat was thrown crashed in a mountain, and they couldn't recover it, this year we are going to place a buzzer that will be sounding since we put the CanSat in the rocket until we recover it, in order not to lose it. In addition, we will add an accelerometer. If it is possible, we will also add a sensor of magnetic field in order to know the orientation of the CanSat all the time.

What is a CanSat?

A CanSat is a recreation of a real satellite designed to be as small as a soft drink can. There are competitions all over the world, challenging students to build their own one. These small satellites feature some of the main characteristics and subsystems of a major satellite, such as ground communication, data collection and flight missions.

Intruder Rocket carrying some CanSats

Last year's Spanish CanSat, from DeSoto Team

The European Space Agency (ESA) hosts an European competition in which high-school and university students face a real space mission. Design, integration, testing, launching, data collection and analysis are some of the activities involved. This platform is intended to develop skills as soldering, building electronics, programming, testing, design, and specially teamwork.

Teams representing their countries will meet next April in Andenes.

Via Esa CanSat