Weekly Reports from Student High Altitude Launch and Payload Teams

Week 6: July 9 – 13, 2007

This week, testing of the UV sensors, solar panels, and electronics continued and the payload structure was completely modeled.

The previous week Kenion and Roderick conducted experiments that tested the ruggedness of the UV sensors. This week, they sat down and analyzed the data that was gathered during their testing. They came to the conclusion that the cold temperatures that would be present during the flight, would have no profound effects on the outcome of the data. Also, after driving their Styrofoam cup apparatus connected to the antenna of Kenion’s antenna around downtown Milwaukee, they determined that the vibration/swinging/spinning of the payload would not disturb the data either.

Caitlin and Chelsey continued working with the solar panels and tested the complete solar array. Chelsey and Caitlin also tested numerous foam board adhesives for the construction of the outer payload structure. They used the completed hot wire foam cutter to cut prototype payload structures.

Jon and Eric continued work on the electronics system and structure design. Jon added pressure and temp sensors to the circuitry. He was also able to get the gps hooked up and retrieve data from it. He is currently working on how to organize the data so that after the flight, the data can be easily imported into an excel spreadsheet and analyzed. Eric continued the design of the payload structure. The 3-d model was completed and drawings were brought to MSOE’s rapid prototyping center to make plastic models.

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