26/07/2014
Week 8 Updates:
Week 8 was very productive for the team, as we were hoping to launch this weekend. However, due to the weather, the launch has been put off until next week.
The week consisted of all the experiments coming together in their final assembly and then testing each one. Evan Schilling and Moshe Wiznitzer worked on combining all the code for the 3 experiments in the lower payload; the Atmospheric Electric Field, Solar Efficiency, and the IR Imaging experiments. Since the arduino's internal clock system isn't the most accurate, we ordered an extra attachment to keep time for our separate mechanisms. Moshe helped the imaging team, Jadee Kellogg and Michael Andrew Stefik, understand how to use the clock to program the filter switching mechanism. The Imaging Team finalized their experiment with a time-lapse test to see how well they could sync the filter switching, controlled by the arduino, to the camera's picture taking, controlled by CHDK. Fortunately, it worked well! Maddy Lambert finished putting all of her Breakdown Voltage circuit onto a wooden internal structure for the upper payload. Danny Ochoa spent a great deal of time this week constructing the foam payload to send our experiments up in. He used a wire cutter to carefully cut out each circular, 1 1/2 inch, layer of foam, glue them all together, and sand it to a smooth finish.
At the end of the week, we performed tests to see how our experiments will behave in the high altitude. Part of the team went on an adventure to obtain some dry ice so we could do a "cold test." We put the dry ice in a cooler and threw our experiments on top to see if the colder temperature affected our circuits. Unfortunately, something went wrong with our data inside the cooler. When Evan and Moshe troubleshooted this problem, they found out we were using a faulty arduino. Good thing Dr. Farrow had a spare! We also used the school's vacuum pump to simulate a low pressure environment for the Breakdown Voltage experiment. We expected the experiment to spark, and it did, but not between the electrodes, which is where we wanted it to! Thankfully we did this experiment and realized we have to insulate the separate components from each other to eliminate sparks where we don't want them.
We will continue perfecting our designs until our flight next week, as long as Mother Nature allows it. Hopefully we'll be posting flight pictures/videos next time! :) In the mean time, we'll be starting the bare bones of our final written report as well as our presentation at the annual Wisconsin Space Conference. If you would be interested in hearing our presentation, or any other really cool talks, you can sign up for the conference at http://www.btci.org/wsc/default.html.
