Fish Coming From Space

Parachute pictures and tests

We don’t want the SpaceFish to crash if something goes wrong, nor do we want it to damage buildings or people if it goes berserk. To avoid that we thought of having a parachute (and as it turned out, it is one of the most important parts of our project these days. So here it is:

Parachute Hanging

It looks really nice I must say and it is quite big in comparison with SpaceFish itself:

Parachute with SpaceFish

This means, among other things, that we can start testing the parachute. These tests are going to be a whole load of fun. Really. What do people suggest? Someone suggested throwing a chair from the window… We should really record these tests and share them with you.

Until then, you have the pictures. Have a nice day.

— fpereda

Captain in the bridge!

We forgot to present you our autopilot system. He has been promoted to captain.

New toy in the lab

We just arrived from the factory and guess what came with us… Exactly! The first mock-up is sitting just a meter away from me. I took the oportunity to take some more pictures to share them with you.

Enjoy them:

SpaceFish Mock-Up Front

SpaceFish Mock-Up Left

SpaceFish Mock-Up Right

There’s still some work to be done on the mock-up. But it is looking quite nice, the people at Astilleros Venturi are doing an awesome job.

Among other things, we already have servos, an electric ducted fan and, since this morning, our own weather balloon and our (small) weather station.

All this should be more than enough for the first tests.

We’ll keep you posted.

— fpereda

Finishing the mock-up and preparing the little bexus.

Today was an exciting day. The mock-up is closer to be finished, people from Astilleros Venturi did a great job crafting all the pieces from the molds.

SpaceFish Team and Astilleros Venturi

SpaceFish

Now is time to pay attention to the details, placing the rudder, the motor, electronics… all have to be with precision to respect the center of gravity and stability of the SpaceFish.

Determining the best placement for the parachute

Also, we are making our own little gondola, with this angle to provide a ramp to drop the SpaceFish, from our meteorological balloon. Performing several tests the next month, all have to be ready before the real BEXUS campaign next October.

Gondola with ramp

Spacefish mock-up

We had a lot of work during the last two weeks.

We were finishing the first mock-up of the Spacefish and getting ready the telemetry system. We expect to flight the Spacefish during the next two weeks with the first prototype of the electronics.

Also the PDR report from the experts has been received during this week. The first impression was good, but loads of work are waiting for us.

The parachute deployment system has been started too! keep tuned to our website to view the first video about it.

Spacefish molds

Pre-PDR meeting held

Just a quick note now: Last friday we held a frist pre-PDR meeting. It was a good oportunity to clear some details and such.

Moulds for building the planes arrive at Madrid tomorrow. Unfortunately, we won’t have an actual plane for the PDR week. Hopefully, we’ll have one by the time we come back to Madrid.

— fpereda

More flights scheduled for tomorrow

I’ve found a nice place for flying the cessna. Héctor and I are going to train our fingers a bit more and get them used to the cessna tomorrow. Flying RC models helps you finding future problems and singularities you’ll face while building and designing the control for an aeroplane.

We have some code that uses a Wiimote as a naïve IMU. If we can get the Wiimote up in the air, it will also be the first test for the Ground Station! Here is a small video showing a simple Attitude Estimator using the accelerometers from the Wiimote:

We’ll keep you posted with the results of the flights tomorrow. Pictures and videos will surely follow.

— fpereda

We are flying!

We just started to fly the last weekend getting a very interesting experience. Spending a lot of time looking for a runaway and yes! we found it! and most important, we had an excellent weather for flying. After a while we got our fingers used to the cessna and now flights are much smoother and nicer. We had to introduce some modifications in the gear providing us an excellent smooth taking off.

We also had some epic fails landings, but no ducky pilot was hurted as the following picture shows:

Click for a larger version of the picture

And another good new, a mold for building Smartfish is coming to Madrid!, we expect to have planes during the next month.

First preliminary experiments ready

The first preliminary experiments are ready. We just received some cessna RC replicas to do some first flights and start seeing how much weight they can handle. These planes are going to be our first steps into the RC world. Soon we are going to use them to carry our hardware. This will also serve as a very nice first test for the ground station and other components of the final experiment.

Formally, the first test is scheduled for Saturday morning. This is a very easy and concise experiment. This is what we expect:

• Get used to the planes and RC in general
• Measure how much weight our RC cessna can handle on flight and take-off
• See how it is to fly our RC cessna with extra weight

The last goal will be accomplished by putting different cubes of known weight in the planes. Also simulating the emplacement of the electronics. Héctor has already prepared the cubes.

And last, but not least, we want to publicly present the scientist that will carry every flight experiment. Here you can se him with one of the cessna.

Click on the picture for a larger version

His name is “Pato” (“Duck” in spanish).

— fpereda

Selection results published

ESA just published the results of the selection workshop: Experts select future REXUS/BEXUS experiments

Congratulations to all of you, we are really looking forward to seeing you and how your experiments are going.

— fpereda