Payloads

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Payload system serves as a platform to test in flight technologies that are being developed within the association, with the intention of incorporating them in the future into the main systems of the vehicle or simply test its operation in the high dynamic conditions to which the rocket is subjected during flight.

These payloads can be of different form factors, such as a CanSat that is the size of a can or a CubeSat, with a size of 10x10x10 cm. These payloads can be deployable, that is, they leave the vehicle at some point (generally during the deployment of one of the parachutes) or payloads that remain inside the rocket throughout the flight with the aim of collecting data for later analysis.

Ongoing Projects

ASTREA-C

This project requires programming four different microcontrollers along with the telemetry graphical interface. This requires a multi-disciplinary approach and the integration of very different subsystems. The onboard software, which is the most complex one, must perform many tasks with a high frequency. In order to tackle this challenge, the software is designed as a multi-thread and multi-frequency system using the ChibiOS RTOS (Real-Time Operating System). It handles more than 200 bytes of sensor measurements from more than 5 sensors at above 200Hz of frequency, which must be logged in memory, sent through telemetry and processed by an event detection algorithm in order to actuate the parachutes at the precise moment.

SERVER

STAR's developments require a shared infrastructure. Our server, provided by

Stackscale, allows us to run a plethora of simulations, share content and host other services efficiently. The software department is tasked with the maintenance of the server and its user accounts, as well as ensuring its security and performance. In

addition, the department often develops commands and tools for the integration of simulation software.

SES-FES

The purpose of this project is to provide the team with a very practical toolbox in order to set-up and analyse software prototypes in MATLAB-Simulink. The SES

(STAR Environment for Simulation) is a MATLAB based toolbox which enables a

simplified interface for setting and interacting with Simulink models. This

standardizes the development of any FES (Functional Engineering Simulation),

which purpose may go from prototyping and analysing a given software architecture, to developing and testing an algorithm of interest. This also allows very rapid and efficient trade-offs and tunning of architectures and algorithms without the need to test in hardware in early stages of development.