Electronics and Communications

STATUS: Completed first stage testing, built comprehensive prototype, testing continuing.

This team is working on designing and fabrication the circuit board that will be the flight computer. The flight computer will travel in the upper stage of the vehicle, known as the dart. In the dart there will be the recovery system in the aft end, the flight computer and electronics, and then the payload compartment. The flight computer will be designed to run all mission operations such as launch, staging, recovery, and tracking. The flight computer will also be a data acquisition platform for various sensors. Data such as speed, ambient pressure and temperature, internal stresses, internal temperature, vehicle performance, and GPS location will be tracked onboard to either RAM or ROM. This data will also be relayed down to the ground team as a redundancy if the vehicle’s equipment is damaged or if the vehicle is lost. Live video from the vehicle will be transmitted and recorded on the ground as well.

Schematic of Flight Computer Mount

The mission parameters call for the vehicle to be recoverable and reusable. This will be quite and endeavor since the vehicles will most likely be making water landings. The flight computer must be ready to withstand the stresses of not only flight, but landing and seawater as well. The onboard tracking will aid in locating the vehicle, but the onboard systems must also survive. The flight of Daedalus III will allow for real world testing of the stresses the computer will experience during flight and landing. Thermal extremes must also be considered, especially if the vehicle is to withstand re-entry and deploy a recovery system. In order to test these extremes the team will need access to an atmospheric chamber to simulate pressure and thermal changes.

The programming of the computer will also be conducted by the Flight Computer sub-division. The mission time elapsed events will occur based on sensors information and calculated flight plans. These must be well though out and developed into the program used to operate the vehicle.

The power and integration sub-division focuses on the powering of the whole vehicle, wiring the vehicle, and integrating the flight computer to the dart. The vehicle will need power for not only the flight computer, but as well as the motor pumps, the recovery system, and communication systems. The onboard power system must be rechargeable, the concept is to mimic a laptop battery. The vehicle will be powered from a ground source when on the pad, yet this will also be charging the battery. The operational time for the on-board power system would be ideally in the range of six to seven hours. The reason for a much loner operational time than flight time is recovery.

The power and integration team will also work on wiring the vehicle to withstand the extreme cold of the upper atmosphere and the heat produced upon re-entry. The wiring must withstand the external environment, as well as the internal environment, especially in the booster stage.  The final aspect of this sub-division is an actual flight box, most commonly known as the “black box.” Materials analysis of aluminum alloys will be conducted to find a material best suited to encapsulate the flight computer circuit boards. This will serve as the modular vessel of the electrical and communication components. It will be able to be placed into any dart, for testing or flight of various Daedalus vehicles. This box must protect the on-board computer from the stresses incurred from, launch, staging, and landing. The flight bow must also protect the electronics from the hard environment of the ocean.

Team Members and Contact Info

Steven Kobosko, Division Lead
Electrical Engineering
skobosko@gmail.com

Power and Integration

Ivan Gomez, Electrical Engineering
My-Linh Truong, Electrical Engineering
Brian Weber, EE Technology
Greg Anoshkin, Electrical Engineering
Ryan O'Neill, Electrical Engineering
Jon Francis, Electrical Engineering
Gor Beglaryan, Electrical Engineering

Flight Computer

Michael Roosa, Electrical Engineering
Milton Guy, Electrical Engineering
Brent Galietti, Computer Engineering
Shane Longshore, Computer Science/CpE
Ariel Poliak, Computer Science
Francis Luna, Computer Engineering
James Humphries, Electrical Engineering
Christopher Davis, Electrical Engineering
Kevin Porter, Computer Science
Bryan Bugallo, Computer Engineering
Zhen Cai, Computer Engineering