COMPACT  REMOTE  H IGH  ALT ITUDE  BALLOON  LAUNCHER  

GROUP  DES IGN  PROJECT   SUMMARY  REPORT  

 

Supervisor:  

Dr  András  Sóbester  

 

Team  Members:  Christian  Balcer  Sabin  Kuncheria  Purackal  Reetam  Singh  Rahul  Kharbanda  Sullivan  Pal  Binay  Limbu    

 

 

 

 

6th  April  2014    

SUMMARY  REPORT  

Written  by  Reetam  Singh  

OBJECTIVES  

The mission was to make a “portable remotely launched unmanned aircraft for atmospheric research” for Southampton University’s Atmospheric Science Through Robotic Aircraft (ASTRA) research program. To meet this requirement; a design study was undertaken and a portable easy-to-deploy automated weather balloon launch system was built. This system could be deployed remotely via GSM in order to relay live atmospheric data via live radio transmission from any given location to the user. The system was reusable and built from off-the-shelf components while the payload was based on open sourced platforms to enhance simplicity and future improvements within the design.

The launch system was constrained within a box, which could be easily posted via mail/courier around the world and could be activated through an SMS from any GSM enabled phone. To demonstrate that functioning of the system, a test payload was made which could transmit live data of temperature, pressure, humidity, altitude and location of the weather balloon to any ground station within the range of the payload.

FIGURE 1: FLOWCHART EXPLAINING THE PROJECT GOALS

A further objective was to conduct an outreach event to demonstrate the potential of the project to science enthusiasts and potential stakeholders.

RESOURCES  

The budget allocated to the project from faculty of Engineering & Environment was £780 (£300 plus £80 per member of the team for 6 persons). Elevator funding wasn’t applied for the project as a partnership was established with the Southampton University’s Aerospace Society EUROAVIA Southampton SEDS (EUROAVIA SoSEDS) whereby they agreed to pay £100 provided the payload becomes a Euroavia SoSEDS property after the completion of the project. Special consideration too needs to be mentioned about EUROAVIA SoSEDS for securing us a booth in the UKSEDS Annual

Conference for outreach purposes and also allowing us to make a presentation to the attendees of the conference.

Six MEng Aeronautics & Astronautics students where available for the project; each having varied backgrounds. Due to the complex nature of the project, consultation was undertaken from the members of the Southampton University’s Spaceflight Society. They provided help in the form of guidance and mitigation strategy for challenges which were faced during the construction process as well as in identification of possible launch sites.

Manufacturing of the valves was undertaken in the University’s Engineering Design and Manufacturing Centre (EDMC) facility whilst the wind tunnel testing took place in the Tizard Building test facility. ASTRA’s balloon flight planner was used to perform launch simulations and identify potential launch sites and dates. Mechanical systems were constructed in the university student workshop while electrical systems were wired in the university electrical workshop at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research.

CONSTRAINTS  

The main constraints for the project were box size, payload mass and the budget. The box dimension was a function of the canister size that in turn controlled the dimensions of the payload. The payload mass was a function of the lift generated from the gas canisters which led to substantial trade-offs during the construction stage of the project where limitations in the mass of helium available led to a decrement in the available payload mass. It was found that the gas canister size was the main dimensional constraint factor of the entire project. Several key components on both payload and box systems had to be engineered based on the canister volume. Budget was a key factor in determining the type of instrumentation to be used where a detailed logistical study was undertaken to keep the costs under budget. It was decided that only off-the-self components and in-house manufactured mechanical systems should be used to keep onto the simplicity requirement of the customer.

Availability of suitable launch date and environment played a key factor in determining the number of test launches which could be undertaken as it was decided recovery of the payload would be a key design requirement for the team for contingency purposes.

APPROACHING  THE  TASK  

The team was divided into two sub-groups: Box Systems and Payload. For effective project management; sub-group project managers were assigned, whilst one acted as an overall project manager. Weekly meetings were organized with the supervisor where the progress of the report was discussed and goals for the subsequent week were set. The supervisor reviewed the design process and suggested further requirements that he expected from the project. A second meeting of the team took place during the week where the key challenges and problems faced by the teams were discussed.

The work plan was formulated during the initial stages of the project and a strict schedule was followed. The work progression is represented below through the following Gantt chart. Additional flight tests were added to the schedule after writing the report in order to demonstrate the system.

FIGURE 2: GANTT CHART EXPLAINING PROJECT PLANNING

TEAM  ORGANIZATION  REPORT  

For this project, we had six individuals in the team: Christian, Sabin, Rahul, Sullivan, Binay and Reetam. All of the members belonged to the Aeronautics & Astronautics faculty of Engineering with different themes. Christian was undertaking Study abroad while Sabin, Rahul, Sullivan and Binay belonged to the aerodynamics theme. Reetam was specializing in Space Systems Engineering. Seeing the group dynamic, the team was divided into two sub-groups: Box system and Payload. Christian headed the box system group in which Sabin and Sullivan were co-members while Reetam due to his space background headed the payload team with Binay and Sullivan being the co-members. Sullivan was the Electrical Systems Expert who was part of both the teams due to his expertise in electronics and programming. The project manager was Christian.

It must be noted that sections written in the report by the individuals doesn’t actually represent the only work undertaken by them as some members worked on more than one aspects which was required due to limited manpower and even distribution of workload for the report writing. The actual work done is further explained in the table below:

TEAM MEMBERS

PAYLOAD BOX SYSTEM

RESPONSIBILITY REPORT AUTHORSHIP

CHRISTIAN X X Valves, release mechanism, balloons, gas canisters, piping system, payload programming, simulations, wind tunnel testing, outreach

Gas delivery and supply design, CFD study, FMEA, Final Conclusion, Report compiling and editing

SABIN X Box design, opening mechanism design and manufacture, wind tunnel box and final box construction, simulations, wind tunnel testing

Box design, Opening mechanism design, Curved beam deflection Analysis, Financial report

SULLIVAN X X Power system, box communication system, electrical system, programming, electronics, soldering, simulations

High altitude balloon research, Box electrical system

BINAY X Payload communication system, onboard data and telemetry system, tracking, soldering

Payload electronics design, Payload tracking writeup

REETAM X Payload Instrumentation, instrumentation programming, thermal control, parachute, Outreach, Sponsor Liaison

Summary Report, Introduction, Outreach, Potential Market, parts of payload electronics

RAHUL X Wind tunnel testing, gas canisters, outreach, legislation

High altitude balloon research, Customer requirements with binary matrix, Legal issues, Wind tunnel test writeup, Launch test writeup. Report compiling and editing.

TABLE 1: DIVISION OF PROJECT WORK

IMPORTANT  RESULTS  

The first test launch did not succeed due to technical errors in manufacturing of the valve system, release mechanism and piping but these issues were resolved quickly. The release mechanism was unreliable due to the unfavorable gear ratio towards the servo and the gearing system around the valve of the canister was reconfigured. During the second launch whose trajectory is shown below; the balloon had a leak due to the sealing of the parachute system within the balloon and came down after reaching an altitude of 2.4 km. During the launch, live telemetry data was available throughout the 2-hour flight. The payload was retrieved successfully and was fit for re-launch.

A third launch is planned to be undertaken in order to demonstrate a fully automated launch with the balloon reaching the target burst altitude.

FIGURE 4: FLIGHT PATH OF SECOND LAUNCH

CONCLUSIONS  

An automated balloon launch system with the capability to launch a payload remotely without any human contact was built and successfully launched albeit with minor failures. The launch could be declared a partial success but in order to prove its actual capability; another launch has been planned after Easter to test its full capabilities on all systems working perfectly in fine tune.

The outreach program was a success, which allowed the group to advertise ASTRA as well as their work to aerospace community. Further commercial capabilities of the project were identified through this event.

RECOMMENDATIONS  

The outcomes suggest that the project can be further developed for commercial applications. The success of the first prototype as well as the interest generated as a response of the outreach clearly demonstrates the capability and potential of this project.

In terms of engineering, it is suggested that the box could be made of acrylic in future designs because of its robust properties. Highly compressed custom gas canisters instead of market available option can open the possibility of multiple payload launches as well as increased ceiling of payload mass available. Steering capabilities in the payload along with onboard cameras can open new possibilities for the project. In terms of battery life; it could be improved even further to make the system last for more than a month. In terms of testing, vibration testing, shake-bed testing and drop tests can be undertaken to prove the robustness of the system. An inflatable sub structure design along with ship sciences could allow the system to be used as a buoy multiplying its capabilities as both atmospheric and oceanic measurement device.