Chapter Three: A Touch of Stardust
5 min read
We are back to light up a new academic year with a blast of amazing updates from UW Orbital! Here’s a quick recap of what our teams were working on previously:
Electrical Power Systems (EPS): finished updating the firmware, performed functional hardware tests on the board, finished the solar panel board layout, defined the firmware architecture of the EPS, the startup sequence, and the lifecycle of the satellite’s power system in space.
Command & Data Handling (CDH): finished the PCB layout, integrated the Linux FreeRTOS port into the repository, implemented the core pieces of our software architecture and began the integration with other subsystems.
Communications: redeveloped the RF frontend board, completed the refined architectures for the ground station and onboard hardware and software, developed an orbital mechanics simulation to verify link budget and prove that the satellite can downlink data to the AROs and MCC.
Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS): finalized the magnetorquer assembly process, began implementing ADCS firmware into the satellite-wide code and testing its functionality.
Mechanical: machined the first iteration chassis via waterjet and computer numerical control (CNC) and concluded the development of the Deployment Switch system.
Payload: settled on the laser parameters for our secondary payload’s ground beacon, finalized the architecture of the secondary payload software, and started the prototype work with the camera software.
Business: reached out to 20 local companies in hopes of obtaining monetary sponsorship, coordinated an educational outreach event with the Waterloo Public Library, received support and funding from the University’s Science and Engineering Societies, finished most of the planning for our next Kickstarter campaign’s launch in September, completed the report for the Rising Youth Grant, hosted our second resume critique, coordinated the planning of the ActinSpace Hackathon with SEDS-Canada, secured a partnership with Wix plus started planning for a Wix workshop, and followed through two marketing campaigns.
Let’s see what we have been doing this past month!
EPS
A new term means recruitment season is back! Much like all other subteams, EPS successfully onboarded a few members in firmware. The team worked on thorough task checklists and onboarding documentation for new Fall 2022 members to help them gain confidence on the team. As we progress towards the second half of our project timeline, they are also completing a detailed F22 plan and ironing out firmware architecture for all our main boards.
EPS is aiming to complete the schematic and board layout for the battery management system (BMS) board, as well as proceed with solar panel board and MPPT firmware testing.
CDH
Like EPS, CDH onboarded new members interested in firmware development to the team and welcomed them through a new onboarding challenge. Simultaneously, they continued to work on device drivers and implementing core pieces of the software architecture.
They soon hope to complete device drivers for the temperature sensor and microSD card and order OBC Revision-1
Communications
Comms designed the V2 of the RF Frontend Board, including via stitching and shielding. They also redefined link budgets and telemetry structure to help with component (i.e., antenna) selection. Communications also confirmed that the CC1120 drivers reliably work for transmitting signals!
Next, they are going to fully test the RF Frontend Boards using a VNA (Vector Network Analyzer), rework SPI implementation for the CC1120 drivers, and finish ground station architecture and component selection
ADCS
ADCS finalized & assembled initial ADCS PCB board. They finished the MEKF algorithm alongside the first iteration of the magnetorquer winding mechanism and they also began simulation development.
Shortly, they plan to conclude the algorithm implementation and develop base spacecraft controllers for simulations. They aim to optimize the magnetorquer winding mechanism and begin the second iteration of PCB boards.
Mechanical
Mechanical welcomed new members as they worked on more chassis machining. They also underwent vibration testing last month using dummy masses.
Next targets for the Mechanical subteam is to undergo the chassis vibration testing with Christie Digital Systems, as well as complete the Critical Design Review (CDR) preparations and finalize the full layout thermal simulations.
Payload
Payload improved the onboarding system for new members and welcomed many new recruits. They started working on customizing the camera software.
They hope to wrap up the camera software customizations and start porting it onto the OBC as well as conclude optics work for both payloads. Concurrently, they plan to begin writing the algorithms for the secondary payload.
Weather Balloon
The Weather Balloon Project is UW Orbital’s new initiative for this term. The WB project team is outfitting a high-altitude weather balloon with 2 cameras, a GPS, and a 3D-printed goose to be sent into near-space in order to capture the Earth's curvature and test out some equipment which will be used on the CubeSat!
So far, we have seen tremendous interest from non-members in this project during our recruitment events and 5 new members joined the WB team’s first in-person meeting! The WB team also designed a new and improved layout for their payload.
Their next steps are to take an image with the payload camera, acquire a GoPro and other components, and model and print the payload container, goose, and the camera rig!
Business
Usually term beginnings are hectic for business units but as usual they continue to shine through with their efforts in supporting the technical teams! In the past month, Business received over $9000 from the Math Endowment Fund (MEF) and the Waterloo Engineering Endowment Fund (WEEF) combined. They were able to finalize the collaboration with Williams Cafe for the Kickstarter reward and settled on discounting $1 to backers who donate over $15 to our Kickstarter.
They continued the planning of the ActInSpace Hackathon with SEDs-Canada, who we have partnered with for this event. Business organized a space-themed team movie day as a relaxing break before final exam season last term. We also successfully held a Wix portfolio event where 50 attendees would be given premium Wix plans. We received approximately 30 attendees in the event who all received the plan codes!
Business started the new term with a head-dive into recruitment season. We presented at the Student Design Teams Showcase where we met and invited over 100 people! A couple of days later we hosted our termly UW Orbital Info Sessions for potential members to learn more about our teams and received 180 people in total over two days, in-person and online combined!
Currently the Business team is planning to launch our Kickstarter within the next week and begin its promotions simultaneously. We are also looking into applying for 1-2 grants and coordinating a career and recruitment event to inspire students to join the space industry in addition to providing them with more job opportunities. Lastly, we have a couple of interesting social initiatives and marketing campaigns coming up soon for greater engagement!
That’s all for now, looking forward to seeing you again in Chapter Four next month!
This was News from the Orbit – now signing off!
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