Preliminary Design Review

Team Name: SatElity

Country: Poland
Table of Contents
1 CHANGELOG ......................................................................................................................... 5

2 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 5
2.1 Team organisation and roles ............................................................................... 5
2.2 Mission objectives .................................................................................................... 6

3 CANSAT DESCRIPTION .................................................................................................... 7

3.1 Mission overview ...................................................................................................... 7
3.2 Mechanical/structural design ............................................................................... 7
3.3 Electrical design ........................................................................................................ 8
3.3.1 General architecture ....................................................................................... 8
3.3.2 Primary mission devices .................................................................................. 9
3.3.3 Secondary mission devices............................................................................ 10
3.3.4 Power supply ................................................................................................. 10
3.3.5 Communication system................................................................................. 11
3.4 Software design ...................................................................................................... 12
3.5 Recovery system .................................................................................................... 14
3.6 Ground support Equipment ................................................................................ 16

4 TEST CAMPAIGN ............................................................................................................... 17

4.1 Primary mission tests ........................................................................................... 17
4.2 Secondary mission tests ..................................................................................... 17
4.3 Tests of recovery system .................................................................................... 17
4.4 Communication system range tests ............................................................... 17
4.5 Energy budget tests .............................................................................................. 18

5 PROJECT PLANNING ........................................................................................................ 19

5.3 Resource estimation ............................................................................................. 19
5.3.1 Budget ...................................................................................................................... 19
6 OUTREACH PROGRAMME ........................................................................................... 20

7 CANSAT CHARACTERISTICS ........................................................................................ 17

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1 CHANGELOG

• One of our team members was sent to the hospital, so the work had to be split
up upon everyone else.

2 INTRODUCTION

Team organisation and roles

The teacher: Piliszczuk Renata, a physicist and a mentor

Team members:

Michał Gryboś – the leader, the programmer, the software designer and the estimator
of resources. The “courtier programmer”. Interested in physics and math. A vivid
learner of programming languages. He coordinates all the tasks. He dedicates around
1 hour daily after school to check if everything is up to par and complete his part of
the project.

Bartłomiej Kaniewski – the “social media ninja” and the parachute designer. A big fan
of math and social media. The “courtier diplomat”. He makes videos on TikTok and
Instagram to raise attention around our project and also fully make a design about the
parachute system. He spends around 1,5 h a day to do his work.

Maja Staręga – the “courtier translator”. A vivid lover of poetry, languages and math.
She makes sure everything is well written and translated. As a part of her tasks, Maja
is also raising morale in the group and writing about the group. Unfortunately, at the
start of October she was sent to the hospital, so the work had to be split up upon
everyone else.

Aleksander Dąbrowski – the “courtier translator and mechanical designer”. A big lover
of chemistry and math. His tasks are to create a model of the CanSat and make
everything with physical electronics and also partly take Maja’s work of translating. He
spends around 1,5 h daily to complete his tasks.
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 Mission objectives

The primary mission’s task is to monitor pressure and temperature in the atmosphere
using the LM35 and BMP280 sensors. The second part is to calculate the descent rate –
after collecting all the data, we will create a comparison of velocity and acceleration.

Our secondary mission’s job is to:

- Check the magnetic field’s power

- Check oxygen level
- Check carbon dioxide level
- Check pressure level

We conducted that this type of mission is a basic way of checking if humans could
potentially live on a planet / object.

If all objectives, that is recovering the CanSat in one bit & successfully checking and
sending:

- Pressure
- Temperature
- Magnetic field
- Oxygen level
- Carbon dioxide level

to the ground station, we can say with confidence that our mission was a success.

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3 CANSAT DESCRIPTION

Mission overview

Our primary mission is to dispatch a satellite into the far reaches of space, a
testament to our commitment to advancing the frontiers of scientific achievement. Our
satellite, endowed with cutting-edge instrumentation, is meticulously designed to
transcend Earth's gravitational confines, thereby contributing to humanity's expanding
repository of space exploration endeavours. However, our ambitions extend beyond
the boundaries of space. Our secondary mission aims to precisely measure the
composition of Earth's atmosphere, focusing on the pivotal elements of oxygen and
carbon dioxide, while concurrently mapping the intricate magnetic fields that envelop
our planet.

The rationale behind this dual mission derives from our deep-seated reverence for the
enigmas of the universe and our unwavering dedication. We seek to address pivotal
inquiries concerning Earth's atmospheric dynamics and magnetic fields, two influential
factors that profoundly impact our environment and life's delicate equilibrium.

Mechanical/structural design

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 Material used will
be a filament to a 3D printer – PLA+ (Polylactic acid) – fully biodegradable polymer.
Every component is going to be mounted with screws and tough glue.

The only moving parts will be the pistons mounted on top of CanSat, which are going
to open the lid. Under it is the parachute for recovery.

Estimated mass is equal to around ~ 320 grams.

Electrical design

3.3.1 General architecture

Electrical design oscillates between measuring the data from all sensors, sending it to
the ground station and saving everything on the SD card.
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The main computer will analyze the commands from the ground station, compile and
convert data for the sending with transmitters.

The battery is going to provide power for all the components.

All sensors will collect data and send it to the main computer.

CanSat will work in “sleep mode” until we send a command to the unit – probably after
takeoff – to fully “wake it up” and make it work properly. This system might save us
some energy crucial for working and increasing recovery chances.

3.3.2 Primary mission devices

a) Pressure sensor BMP280 – checking the pressure whilst flying down

b) Temperature sensor LM35 – checking the temperature in the atmosphere
c) Arduino M0 – motherboard, CPU and radio communication

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3.3.3 Secondary mission devices

a) Magnetic field sensor AH49E – checks intensity of (if exists on the planet /
celestial body / object) the body’s magnetic field
b) Oxygen sensor DFRobot SEN0322– checks percentage of O2 in the atmosphere
c) Carbon dioxide sensor Fermion: ENS160 – checks percentage of CO2 in the
atmosphere
d) Pressure sensor from the primary mission

3.3.4 Power supply

Battery is going to be Li-Ion. Voltage will be 9V, adding up all the electronics, the power
consumption is 0,394 W. Our accumulators provide 2500 mAh, so this gives an
estimated amount of around 6 hours of non-stop work.

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3.3.5 Communication system

The communication
system is going to be in both directions. Radio’s frequency range will be from 125 kHz
to 433 MHz on the widely available radio wave band, ISM.

The receiver on the ground station will be a Yagi-Uda antenna, handheld version,
whereas the radio module on the CanSat is going to be the SX1278.

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 Software design

Image 1: Start of the On-Board System diagram

On-Board software has two modes:

normal and power saving. On start
(image 1) of the CanSat’s system
will make a test. The test involves
collecting data from measurers and
then send them to ground support.
If everything is done correctly
system will save collected data in
database and then put in power
saving mode. If not, it will wait for
manual repair. Power saving mode
is a mode when every measurer is
off and only functioning parts are:
main computer, transmitter and
receiver. Data will be collected as
floats. Data is going to be storage
on SD card as database. Every
variable will be merge to single
entry and then saved. Estimated
weight of every float is 4 bytes, so
estimated weight of whole entry is
20 bytes. In assumption that data
will be saved every second and SD
Card have 32GB memory the card
will run out from memory in about
450 thousand hours.

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 Image 2: diagram of On-Board system after drop

System will exit power saving

mode by signal from ground
support. After exiting system
(image 2) will measure a given
properties of planet then it will
save them in database and send to
ground support. Given instruction
will be repeated every second until
power shut down. On Board
system will be written in Arduino
which is built on C++. Develop
Environment for this will be basic
Arduino IDE from official website.

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 Image 3: diagram of On-Ground app
On-Ground software will be an application written in
Python. The app will have GUI to easily find and see
real time data. On start of the application (Image
3), it will create a database file on computer and
open GUI without data. After receiving data, it will
be saved in the database and presented in the GUI
on data table and Real time chart. In the app will be
an option to write a simple command to CanSat.
Application will be written in Environment called
PyCharm which is created by JetBrains

Recovery system

For the safe return of our can to the ground we will use a parachute of type flat consisting
of eight isosceles triangles sewn together with the logger sides to overall look similar to
the hemisphere, but with eight sides. The parachute will be made of Ripstop nylon 10D
material, it is very light fibber witch weight is about 23g/m2. Parachute will be attached
using5mm rope dynema.

To calculate size of ours parachute we use transformed terminal of velocity formula,

which is the max speed for a object with known drag coefficient. This speed is derived
from Newton`s first law of motion, but in this example force are not disarm to
completely zero, but they limit each other to obtain the desired speed(in this example
about 10m/s).

The formula for maximum speed is:

𝑉=√2𝑚𝑔𝐶𝑜𝜌𝑆

in our case:

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m=350g=0,35kg

g=9,81𝑚𝑠2

𝐶𝑜=0,75

𝜌=1,005𝑘𝑔𝑚3

V=10𝑚𝑠

S=?

To calculate the area of the base, you need to use the transform formula given above
and calculate it:

𝑆=2𝑚𝑔𝐶𝑜𝜌𝑉2

S = 0,091104478 𝑚2

To calculate the radius of the base, use the transformed formula for the area of a circle:

P=𝜋𝑟2

r=√𝑃𝜋

r=0,170292m≈0,17𝑚

And next calculate a (in picture) using cosine:

𝑠𝑖𝑛12𝛽=12∗𝑎𝑟→𝑎=2∗𝑟∗𝑠𝑖𝑛12𝛽

𝑎=0,13011𝑚≈0,13m

Assuming that the height of the entire solid is equal to its radius, we can calculate the
area of the triangles that make up the parachute.

4b= 2πr

b=0,2669m≈0,27m

ℎ𝑡2=𝑏2−(12𝑎)2

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ℎ𝑡=0,262059154m≈0,26m

𝑃𝑡=12𝑎ℎ

𝑃𝑡=0,0169𝑚2

And from it area of parachute

𝑃𝑐=𝑃𝑡∗8

𝑃𝑐=0,1352𝑚2

To every corner of the parachute base we will attach a rope and the other end to a
CanSat. Base of our parachute is hexagon, so there will be eight lines. Rope and CanSat
will be conected using 3D 8 protruding pins with holes printed on a 3D printer locate on
the top of the machine.

Ground support Equipment

There is going to be several devices on ground. The most important device is

computer with a software (The software was described in software design). There will
be also antenna for collecting data from CanSat and a radio receiver to translate data.
Data will be gathered from radio communication with probe. Then it will be saved in
database and then displayed on computer in GUI.

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4 TEST CAMPAIGN

Primary mission tests

We will test the sensors by going out to a field and also making it fall down from
around 200 m with the parachute on to simulate real-mission as well as possible

Secondary mission tests

To test the secondary mission sensors, we will start the magnetometer and based on
our knowledge compare it to get the best conclusions as possible. The oxygen and the
carbon dioxide sensors will be set in an environment with varying levels of those
substances.

Tests of recovery system

Using a drone, we will drop a prototype or a ready-made parachute and a can filled
with weights so that it weighs 350g from a height of about 200m. We will record the
entire test, measure the fall time and the distance it is carried by the wind, and
compare this data with our assumptions. After the tests, if necessary, we will make
changes to our parachute.

Communication system range tests

To test radio, we will simply send a signal while walking every 100 meters. If we don’t
get a signal, we will know the range.

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 Energy budget tests

To test the battery we will simply put the fully charged CanSat on max. Power
consumption and count when the battery will discharge.

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5 PROJECT PLANNING

Resource estimation

5.1.1 Budget

pressure sensor BMP280 10,00 zł

temperature sensor LM35 23,00 zł
battery 10,00 zł
CanSat Kit (motherboard and prototype board) 175 zł + 20 zł

secondary mission devices

magnetic field sensor Iduino SE054 5,90 zł
oxygen sensor DFRobot SEN0322 284,00 zł
carbon dioxide sensor 10,00 zł
pressure sensor BMP280 10,00 zł

parachute
ripostop nylon 10D 42,00 zł
lina 5mm dynema x4 28,40 zł

SUMARY: 423,30 zł

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6 OUTREACH PROGRAMME

• https://www.instagram.com/sat.elity/

• https://www.tiktok.com/@sat.elity

• Logo was design by Tomasz Kotowski

7 CANSAT CHARACTERISTICS

Characteristics Figure

Height of the CanSat ~15 cm

Diameter of the CanSat ~6 cm

Mass of the CanSat ~320 grams

Estimated descent rate ~10 meters per second

Radio transmitter model and frequency band Yagi-Uda antenna

Estimated time on battery (primary mission) 6h

Cost of the CanSat ~750 PLN

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