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[T=-283d] 22.07.2013 Groundstation and Software Progress

Alex

The development of our software has been under great progress. With this groundstation we can test our electronic components. This interface is as well important for our launch campain. We can see if the sensors work correct, if the Hatch opens correctly and can see all values of the temperature and pressure sensors.

Early design of GSE Groundstation software.
Early design of GSE Groundstation software.

 

 

Also the Microcontroller Software, written in pure ANSI-C, has done great progress. Altough there is not much more to see than blinking lights at this point, you can see the development using the IDE (CoIDE) for the Microcontroller we choose, an STM32F103 with 72 MHz.

Software IDE for Low Level development.
Software IDE for Low Level development.
Design of control loop for heating sensors in Matlab/Simulink.
Design of control loop for heating sensors in Matlab/Simulink.

Of course it is necessary to simulate the environment to adjust the experiment parameters. A simulation using SimuLink has been performed to analyze the heat loss of the sensors during flight to determine the correct control parameters. We will most likely use a PID control.

 

All software from this project is licensed under a Creative Commons license. Why? To support fellow and future Rexus Teams.

[T=-415d] 08.02.2013 Preliminary Design Review & Training Week

Alex

We have sucessfully performed our Preliminary Design Review and had a great training week at the DLR facility in Oberpfaffenhofen!

There we had the three represants of our team, Alexander Mager (Teamleader), Patrick Geigengack (Mechanical) and Alexander Schultze (Electronics & Software) presented the current design to experts from ESA, DLR and ESRANGEchecked our design in detail, gave us very useful advise and a showed us things we can improve.
(Next to the SHEFFEX sounding rocket at GSOC. F.l.t.r: Alexander Mager, Alexander Schultze, Daniel Geigengack)
(Next to the SHEFFEX sounding rocket at GSOC. F.l.t.r: Alexander Mager, Alexander Schultze, Daniel Geigengack)
During the whole week, we had workshops in a lot of interesting subjects, for instance on GPS, Flight Mechanics, Atmosphere, Communications and Testing & Verficiation, providing usefull skills for our future work. But also we had a lot of fun – there were plenty of excursions to discover Bavaria. We could take a look at the German Space Operation Center for the Columbus Module and satellites, as well as the upcoming generation of navigation satellites GALILEO, and the Robotics & Avionics lab, where you might ask yourself “Cool! But if that’s what you do for fun, what do you do for work then?”. Seems to be the same! 🙂
A highlight was the final event – which ended up to be the 5.th Anniversary of the Columbus Module Launch, giving us a wonderful opportunity to listen and talk to people like the Prof. Wittmann, the former Director of Space Operations and Astronaut or the Operation Manager T. Kuch from the German Space Operation Center (GSOC), and two actual ESA astronauts,  Leópold Eyharts and Pedro Duque.
You may remember that Leopold Eyharts was the one who attached the Columbus Module to the ISS in 2008 during the STS-122 mission. But – he also was the one who attached the EuTEF experiment module to the space station, which first flew our FIPEX-sensors to space to measure atomic oxygen in a high temporal resolution for the very first time!
(A. Schultze)