Finishing our CDR

During the last time, we were quite stressed out working on our CDR, a report that has to be sent to ESA by Sunday, 1 May.

 

To give those of you who aren't familiar with the various procedures during the CanSat-competition a little insight, here comes an overview on the reports that each individual team has to deliver. 

Before the Launch Campaign, there are two reports: the CDR (Critical Design Review) and the FDR (Final Design Review). Both of them include the actual Progress Report as well a Design Document.

In the Progress Report, the team has to deliver a short Progress Statement about how things are going on that will later be published on ESA's website. In addition to this, there is a rather detailed Project Status, explaining problems, plans and current tasks about their mission's individual components as well as a Task List.

The Design Document includes specific descriptions and explanation about each task that has to be fulfilled. There is a Team Introduction explaining the team's structure and goals,  a CanSat Description including for example the mechanical, electrical and software design, a Project Plannig section stating for example a time schedule as well as a test plan and, finally, the Outreach Programme.

In addition to the text, there can be pictures, logos, short videos etc.

Given that these reports are an important part of the jury's basis for evaluation, we spent multiple hours writing the individual texts, searching for pictures and coordinating our teamwork. Up to now, we have managed to set up a preliminary result. During the two days to come, it will be revised and corrected before sending it to ESA .

Updated team logo

Improving our triggering mechanism

During the last few weeks, we've made some progress concerning our triggering mechanism. We perfected our idea of a mechanism with a servomotor and created a preproduction model. 

Therefore, our current triggering mechanism is composed of a servomotor whose rotation is converted into a linear vertical movement of the vacuette, which is guided through a mounting. It is then to be broached by the cannula. In order to seal the vacuette, the servomotor rotates in the counter direction. To ensure the stability of the system, the cannula is fixed in both vertical directions. A sufficient force exerted by the servomotor is necessary as the membrane is quite hard to be punctured (as described in the previous post). The following graphic shows the development of our triggering mechanisms:

The preproduction model that is currently being finished is necessary to prove whether this mechanism is the most suitable and has got the least potential difficulties. It allows us to pre-identify problematic areas and to improve whatever does not work perfectly. In addition to that, it is a great display item and can be used within the framework of our outreach programme for exhibitions as well as for concrete explanations during the presentations of the Launch Campaign. 

As soon as possible, we will test our triggering mechanism using the preproduction model. We are confident that this (or a slightly modified procedure) will be our final triggering mechanism and we hope that the tests will be as successful as we expect.

Progress!

This month, we met multiple times in order to work on our project, including two meetings during our holidays this week that very quite efficient.

Our present challenges are choosing and implementing a proper procedure for taking our air samples, getting an overview of all components that have to fit in our CanSat and also preparing the CDR report that has to document our mission, procedure and progress to ESA.

We split up tasks so that while parts of the team wrote the report or constructed the CanSat's components with a 3D-modeling software called SolidWorks, others developed multiple ways of implementation of a proper triggering mechanism of the air samples.

The air samples will be taken with vacuettes, very solid plastic containers that are pre-evacuated and that have got a membrane that closes very tightly after it is punctured. Given that this membrane is very thick and tough (see photo below), it is quite difficult to do so.

On the one hand, it is almost impossible to puncture the material with rather thick needles or similar equipment, so given that vacuettes are made to work with cannulas, we choose to also work with cannula needles.

On the other hand, very great strength is needed to do the punctation. Up to now, we have discarded the procedure with a rotating panel that was mentioned in a previous post as well as another that would have been solenoid-run because they don't provide enough strength to punctate the vacuette as well as secure the air samples. We currently think of a servomotor-run mechanism. Being provided 9V only, the servomotor (see below) is much stronger than e.g. solenoids.

We are hopeful and optimistic that this procedure will work out, so in the next time, we'll prepare an experimental setup including a vacuette, cannula and servomotor in order to test the mechaism and its strength. And of course, we'll always keep you updated!

Rosetta-Webconference at DLR's

Today, we visited the DLR (Deutsches Luft- und Raumfahrtzentrum) in Cologne in order to participate in an international webconference about the Rosetta / Philae mission.

After having arrived at about 10am, we were welcomed by the organisators and could get comfortable. We were glad to have the unique opportunity of taking a look at models and the team's project room.

During the webconference itself, there were three project leaders who gave presentations about different aspects of the mission. The audience consisted of ten student groups from all over the world that were connected via webcams and a live-chat. There were groups from Italy, Poland, Germany, Australia, Sudan, Austria and Egypt. As we were able to participate live at the DLR, we sat behind the project leaders. After the introductary presentations, we were all free to ask questions.

To conclude, we can definetly say that we had a great time today and learned a lot about the Rosetta  / Pilae mission. It was even more interesting considering the fact that parts our our CanSat-mission were directly inspired by this one.

We would really like to thank the DLR, espacially Mr Zywicki, for offering us the great opportunity to participate in this conference.

If you wish to get some information on the mission, we recommend the following websites:

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/   (a blog by the European Space Agency about the mission)
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta   (information about the mission - official ESA website)
http://www.dlr.de/dlr/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10394/   (information about the mission  - official DLR website)  

Interview at WDR - Update

The interview will be published tomorrow: Tuesday, 9th February between 3.05 and, 5 pm (WDR,  "Leonardo"). It is available on the internet:

http://www1.wdr.de/radio/podcasts/wdr5/leonardo302.html (01:04:50).

Interview at WDR

Today, we visited the WDR studios in Cologne. We had been invited to an interview about our CanSat work by a team member of the science programme "Leonardo" (radio station WDR5).

It was real fun talking about our time during the preparations for the 2015 competition as well as about the Launch Campaign in Bremen.

 

Later on, we went to the Cologne city centre in order to find sponsors. - If you are interested in supporting our mission, or know someone who might be, we would be really happy if you contacted us.

Portugal!

We promised you to always keep you updated about information concerning the location of the 2016 Launch Campaign.
Finally, we are able to do so:

The Launch Campain will take place in Portugal from 22 to 26 June 2016, as ESA recently announced.

Our whole team is very excited and looking forward to a hopefully great experience!

Improving our air samples and triggering mechanism

At the moment, we are working on improvements to our air samples and triggering mechanism.

Up to now, our triggering mechanism contains tiny pins, loops and much precision work shortly before the Launch Campaign. Working on it during the 2015 competition under pressure of time was really stressful. The new mechanism will work with a rotating panel and strings. We'll keep you up to date how exactly it will work when we've figured out how we're going to proceed.

As mentioned in the previous post, we're going to use vacuettes to collect the air samples.

To make them fit into our CanSat, we're gonna have to restructure it. In addition to that, we are at the moment planning to exchange some of the CanSat's components that didn't work properly last year or will be unnecessary during this year's competition.

We're also planning the exact produre of collecting the air samples. For example, the vacuettes have to be tested, placed in the can properly and brought together with the triggering mechanism. You see: there's lots of work  to be done.

Thanks to Greiner Bio-One!

We would like to thank Greiner Bio-One for supporting us with vacuettes for our air samples!


In the 2015 competition, we had problems with our air samples caused by our procedure of establishing a vacuum inside of the containers shorty before the Launch Campaign. The vacuum didn't last long enough for the samples to be secured doring the flight and our search of the CanSat.


Vacuettes carry a great advantage for us: They are pre-evacuated, so we can use them without having to modify them. They are also much more leakproof than the syringes that we used the last time.



Tag der offenen Tür

Today was our school's "Tag der offenen Tür".

As this is an event where many people come to visit our school and are interested in its different projects, it was a perfect possibility for us to talk to peolpe and present our CanSat-mission to a new, but interested community.

We had most of our material and our prototypes in an exhibition and were of course present to explain how they work and what we do with them. Many adults and children were very curious and asked a lot of questions that we were happy to answer.

Thanks to the TH in Cologne!

Today, we visited the TH in Cologne in order to thank Mr. Prof. Kronberger and his team.

They were the ones who supported us really much and helped us building our helix-antenna. It worked really well during the competition in Bremen and we are planning to reuse it in June.