For the upcoming mission of launching Tycho DS we have developed a GUI for showing events in real time during the flight. The ignition of the LES engine is done from a separate system but all other events/commands are controlled by using a hardware box with dedicated buttons for each event which is controlled manually by Flight (Kristian von Bengtson). The events comprise the following:
- Release the LES tower from the space capsule ending the power ascent of the flight. When this phase is over after approximately 4 seconds the LES tower will be released from Tycho DS using pyro-electric bolts controlled from Mission Control (MC).
- Remove the Top dome and deploy the drogue. This is done by pyro-technique and is defined as one event. When the top dome is off it will drag the drogue out as well.
- Deploying of the three main parachutes. They are attached to the drogue using a three-ring release system. When the space capsule is stabilized by the drogue, Flight will initiated the parachutes deploy command from MC.
- Releasing the main parachutes from Tycho DS is done when the capsule lands in the Baltic Sea to prevent the capsule being dragged further on the ocean surface by the parachutes.
- Deployment of the up-righting bags is the last event directly controlled from MC and it is set of in order to ensure that the capsule will upright itself and stay in the position Stable-1 on the ocean surface.
What Goes Up Must Come Down
The five commands send to the capsule will be registered in the sequencer and by the onboard micro-controller. The controller sends the data packages down to the mission control software, which is depicted in the figure. When a command is looped back from Tycho DS the corresponding filled circle will turn red to indicate that the command has been received properly in the space capsule.
In addition to the five circles, the FIDO monitor contains a progress bar showing a timeline configured in this case from T-70 to T+120 seconds. The countdown clock is shown in large characters and the five small numbers in the lower left corner of the monitor are: latitude, longitude and altitude (by GPS), the altitude calculated by using the barometric pressure and finally a real time stamp.
Additional sensors are mounted on Tycho DS measuring acceleration, roll, pitch and yaw, noise level and the temperature inside the capsule, but these measurements are not relayed down to MC but instead stored on the micro-controller. Combined, a very simple mission control system. From lessons learned during testing and last year's mission we know simplicity is the key.
You’re hereby invited to grab your own copy of the software applications, which is the FIDO Tycho DS and the software running on the micro controller (Arduino Mega), and post your comments in a mail or on the blog. Please note that the software is not yet released because we still have to do some testing – especially the integration test with the radio system.
Files for Download and Review:
FIDO_TychoDS.zip - This is a Netbeans 7.0 Java project containing the GUI shown above.
EECOM.zip - This contains the main routine running on the Arduino micro-controller.
Externalunits.zip - This ZIP file contains additional libraries needed for the sensors and shall be extracted normally in the library under the Arduino distribution.
If you want to run the FIDO app you’ll need a copy of the RXTX DLL suitable for your platform. Please look here for downloads and installation notes: http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Please take a look at the Tycho DS Electrical System Design document posted here for a more in-depth description of the sensors and their use.
Kind regards and happy reviewing
Greetings Steen Andersen/CS
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Steen Andersen joined Copenhagen Suborbitals in 2009. He is responsible for the mission control software called FIDO monitor, taking part in test measurements and the ongoing research and development. He has previously been working with software development for a Danish space company and is currently making a living as an IT consultant.*
