Introduction to the LA ACES Student Ballooning Course

LSU v09/08/05 SBC Overview 1

Introduction to the LA ACES Student Ballooning Course

A summary of the motivation, contents and status of the materials available to support

implementing a student built balloon payload program at a university or college


Motivation

• There has been little development of classroom materials to support the student built aerospace payload program.

• No materials for an integrated course– Need to cover diverse topics– Need to complete in academic year

• Focus on younger undergraduates– Work with ~2nd year students

• Available “CanSat” electronics needed improvements

• Provide basis for an advanced programLaunch of the ACES-01 vehicle during May, 2003


Basic SBC Structure

• Divided into two major components– Formal lectures and skill building activities (1st semester)– Payload design, development and operation (2nd semester)

• Detailed structure follows that used during the ACES pilot– Assume 14 weeks per semester– Two required sessions per week and each session is 2 hours long– For 1st semester each required session includes ~1 hour lecture &

~1 hour activity– For 2nd semester students are engaged in payload development

• Students will need to complete or extend their activities during times beyond the required sessions

• During payload development the students will need to prepare and present reports of their status


Anticipated Schedule


SBC Contents• A course syllabus

– Provides a summary of the Student Ballooning Course– Can be modified to fit institution needs

• Lectures– 33 PowerPoint presentations covering the primary topics relevant to

the program

• Activities– 30 descriptions of hand-on activities that complement the lectures and

build skills relevant to payload development

• List of materials necessary for the activities• A hardware kit with the PCBs, microcomputer and other core

components required to support the activities• Evaluation forms

– Feedback from both students and instructors is important


Student Ballooning Course Summary

Units Num. Of Lectures

Num. Of Activities

Themes

Introduction 2 Overview of ACES & SBC

Electronics 8 10 Components, prototyping, soldering, assembly, CAD tools, data acquisition, A to D converters, power

Programming 7 8 BASIC Stamp, BalloonSat, digital I/O, serial I/O, RT clock, memory, peripherals, debugging

Ballooning 6 6 Vehicle overview, flight environment, payload construction, materials, thermal calculations,

mechanical drawing, design guidelines, launch ops.

Project Management

8 9 Project life cycle, system design, WBS, estimating costs, scheduling tasks, risk management,

documentation


Electronics Unit

• Unit provides basic knowledge and skills in electronics

• Lectures & activities include

– Electronic components

– Prototyping & assembly techniques

– Circuit design CAD tools

– Data acquisition, ADC, DAC

– Power sources, batteries, photovoltaic

– Troubleshooting circuits


Programming Unit

• Unit provides basic knowledge and skills in programming

• Lectures & activities include– Intro to PBASIC &

programming– Digital I/O– BalloonSat

development board– Serial I/O– Memory storage, RTC,

controlling motors– Testing and debugging


Payload Design Unit

• Unit provides basic knowledge and skills in payload design

• Lectures & activities include– Balloon vehicle

components– Flight profile &

environment– Thermal issues– Mechanical drawing

techniques– Design guidelines– Flight Readiness

Review details


Project Management Unit

• Unit provides basic knowledge and skills in management

• Lectures & activities include– Project life cycle– System design &

interface control– Defining project tasks &

cost– Developing a project

schedule– Risk & risk

management– Documentation– Team work and

leadership


SBC Hardware Components

SkeeterSat is an introductory circuit assembly activity where the output beep frequency is temperature dependent and the interval between beeps is light intensity dependent

BalloonSat includes a Basic Stamp microcontroller for programming activities. Can also be used as the payload controller

HOBO data acquisition device with internal temperature sensor, external temperature probe and auxiliary input

Miscellaneous Parts includes specialized components & sensors used by some activities

The SBC distribution CD also includes numerous reference documents and specialized software


Science Unit• Unit provides some background

knowledge on selected science topics

• Anticipated lectures include– Atmospheric structure &

composition– Cosmic rays & their interaction in

the atmosphere– Remote sensing– Solar radiation

• Opportunity to use local faculty expertise

• Contributions are solicited and would be very welcome!

Processed cosmic ray data from the ACES-01 FRED experiment

http://atic.phys.lsu.edu/aces/ballooncourse/Science/Unit_Links.htm


New for this year

• For this year we will be asking you to determine your science payload topic within the next week or so.

• Lecture next session will provide descriptions of potential payloads.– All will fit within the imposed weight, power, size, budget

and time constraints– Intention is for you to choose a payload from this list

• Free to determine your own payload, but you will need to show that it will fit the constraints

• Think about applications to your payload while we go through the lectures and activities this semester.


Issues concerning the SBC

All lectures and activities are available through the LaACES website “Documents” page

http://atic.phys.lsu.edu/aces/Presentations.html

Any issues concerning the SBC can be addressed to

T. Gregory Guzik e-mail: [email protected]

Or

John P. Wefel e-mail: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]