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Dave's Falcon Gold
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A Sad Announcement |
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Obituary - Dr. Ronald Humble
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COLORADO SPRINGS, CO., Jul. 23, 2002 -- [From The Gazette]
Dr. Ronald William Humble of Colorado Springs, Colorado, passed away on July 18, 2002 at the young age of 44. This tragic cardiac event occurred at the United States Air Force Academy shortly after his enjoyable afternoon bicycle ride. Ron leaves behind his wife of 21 years, Judy Humble, his beautiful daughters Heather and Jenna, all of Colorado Springs. He is also survived by his mother and father, Joyce and Jon Humble, his brother, Dr. Neil Humble, all of Calgary and his sister, Sandy Humble, of Ardrossan, Alberta. Ron was a proud Canadian and 1975 graduate of Viscount Bennett High School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He received his engineering degree from the University of Washington, and there he met his life's partner, Judy. He obtained his Masters and PhD. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Flight and space were always Ron's fascination, building his first glider at 10 years of age. The past 10 years Ron had spent at the United States Air Force Academy, eventually receiving the prestigious General Bernard A. Schriever Endowed Chair in Space Systems Engineering. Without a doubt, it is Ron's intense work habits that made him successful at his passions for teaching and researching rocket and satellite technology. Next to his family and work, his other loves included mountain climbing, skiing, and cycling. Ron has climbed wherever there was a mountain needing climbing, including 51 fourteeners in Colorado. He rarely went alone on these journeys, always bringing along family, friends or his dog. Ron took great pride in sharing these loves with his daughters. Cycling, Ron enjoyed to the fullest right up to his passing. He has many Colorado and Texas State cycling championships. His proudest moments, however, were those involving his children. Last year, his oldest daughter, Heather, was the Colorado age class champion on the veledrome. This year his youngest daughter, Jenna, skied her first black run. Ron was a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a friend, a neighbour, a colleague, a teacher, an athlete, an academic, but most of all, he was an influence. All who were touched by him "wear" his influence proudly and boldly. Wherever you are Ron, all who knew you love you and admire you. Most of all, we take comfort knowing that the mountains are high and of splendor. May the roads be straight and true with the wind whispering at your back. We shall see you soon. All are invited to both the open casket viewing Wednesday, July 24, 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. at the Mountain View Mortuary at 2530 Montebello Square Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado; and the memorial service on Tuesday, August 6, 5:00 p.m. at St. Luke's Lutheran Church at 5265 North Union in Colorado Springs. In lieu of flowers, please forward donations to an education trust fund for his daughters Heather and Jenna. Contact Tom Sarafin at TPSarafin@aol.com or phone (303) 979-5827. Copyright 2002, The Gazette, a Freedom Communications, Inc. Company. |
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AIAA Special Recognition Award |
| Launch and Operations |
| Launch and Operations Pictures | |||||
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Mission patch for DSCS III. | ) |
The launch pad. |
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The Colorado Crew. |
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Final launch preparation. |
) | Pre-launch briefing. | ) | Final checkout and activation. |
) | The crew that went up for activation. | ) | AC-131 ready to go. | ) | The Colorado Team poses in front of AC-131. |
) | 5..4..3..Ignition sequence start..2..1.. | ) | The launch. | ) | Yahoo! |
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Telemetry |
| Final Telemetry Plots | |||
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 voltage is sampled with the TNC and transmitter off, the (44) voltage with them on. Vbus min is the bus voltage corresponding to dead batteries.</FONT>',445,422)) | Actual main bus voltage. | ) | Actual spacecraft temperatures. |
.</FONT>',445,422)) | Predicted main bus voltage. | ) | Predicted temperatures. |
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Falcon Gold Links |
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EPS Assembly and Test |
| EPS Assembly and Test Pictures | |||||
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The timer and power supplies receive initial testing. |
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A closeup of the timer and the 8 and 13.6 Volt power supplies. |
 help.',320,240)) |
Battery labels being made. |
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High level hardware preparation. |
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Battery construction continues. |
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The batteries are ready. |
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The EPS board is ready to go. |
 box.',480,360)) |
The EPS board gets tested. |
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The flight batteries get cycled and charged. |
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Balloon Test Flight |
| Balloon Test Flight Pictures | |||||
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The esteemed Dr. Humble working on payload layout. |
 is on the right.</FONT>',320,240)) |
The payload, exploded view. |
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One of the status briefings. |
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Troubleshooting ground software on one side of the room... |
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...and flight software on the other. |
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Closing up the payload. |
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The completed spacecraft. |
</FONT>',320,240)) |
Uh oh... |
 package.',320,427)) |
Preparing the Amatuer Television (ATV) package. |
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Setting up the antennae at the ground station. |
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The spacecraft, insulated and ready to fly. |
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Inflating the balloon. |
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Completing final checklists. |
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Ready for launch. |
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Tracking the balloon. |
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Electrical Power Subsystem |
PAPER
I presented a paper on this power subsystem at the 11th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites in Logan, Utah. For the complete story on this power subsystem, download the paper. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. Otherwise, read on below for an overview.INTRODUCTION
The Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS) takes energy from up to 30 batteries and converts and distributes electrical power to the payload devices. This is a simple supply-only system since there is no on-orbit charging. The EPS also controls activation of the payload.
This spacecraft is a secondary payload, hitching a ride on the booster of another mission. Therefore, it must be assured that our spacecraft will not activate until the primary payload is safely away from the booster to which Falcon Gold is attached.
A primary challenge was to design a system that conserves power to maximize mission life. The batteries chosen for this mission are Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH). These were chosen to prove them for future missions which will have on-orbit charging. One disadvantage to using these batteries is that NiMH batteries are secondary batteries, that is, they are meant to be discharged and recharged. While this cell chemistry gives fairly good energy density and charge/discharge cycle life, it also has self discharge characteristics that hurt a mission with no charging capability. So, even with careful management of payload power consumption, mission lifetime will be impacted by the self discharge rate of the NiMH batteries.
Figure 1. EPS Block Diagram
As can be seen in Figure 1, there are four parts to the EPS: Batteries; Activation, Regulation, and Distribution; and two blocks of connections. The EPS circuitry is implemented on a single printed circuit board (PCB).
BATTERIES
As previously stated, the batteries are NiMH. The cells chosen are 4/5A size with 1500mAh to 1650mAh capacity, depending on brand. Each battery consists of 10 series connected cells for a nominal battery voltage of 12VDC. For safety reasons, there is a fuse and thermal cutoff in series with the cells. There is also a temperature sensor integrated into the battery for monitoring temperature during charging.
ACTIVATION, REGULATION, and DISTRIBUTION
This is the heart of the Electrical Power Subsystem. It controls payload activation and takes the unregulated battery voltage and supplies the voltages needed by the payload and the EPS itself.
Activation of the payload is controlled by two fail-safes: barometric pressure switches and a delay timer. There are two pressure switches in series that keep power disconnected from the delay timer until the payload reaches a predetermined altitude, approximately 45,000 feet in this case. Once these pressure switches both close, power is applied to the delay timer. This timer is set for approximately 1 hour and 7 minutes (4000s). After the delay, the delay timer applies power to the main 12V bus. This in turn enables an 8V regulator, allowing the flight computer to start and run the mission.
The EPS supplies several voltages to the payload devices. Some of these regulated supplies are on all the time and some are switched under control of the flight computer. The voltages supplied are 5VDC for the delay timer, 8VDC for the flight computer, and 13.6VDC switched to the transmitter. Unregulated, switched 12VDC is also provided for the modem/terminal node controller in the payload that packetizes data prior to transmission.
CONNECTIONS
These are the connections to the payload devices and Ground Support Equipment (GSE).
The connections to the payload are hardwired power and telemetry connections that run directly from the EPS PCB to the payload sensors and flight computer. Through these connections, the payload devices get their power and the flight computer gains control over the switched power. Telemetry from the EPS consists of a single temperature sensor mounted on the EPS PCB and a voltage sense line connected to the unregulated 12V main bus.
The GSE connector is a 100 pin connector that connects the payload to the outside world. Through this connector, the batteries can be charged and discharged, telemetry points can be monitored, and the fail-safes can be bypassed (for testing purposes).
