Open Day Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI)

What did we do?

Our task was to establish a downlink via APRS. Mosa-RT’s task was to measure the speed of sound at different heights. We first worked on I2C communication between 2 Arduino Uno’s. After that, we worked on the box. This included attaching little hooks to the sides and covering it in gold foil. With those hooks we were able to attach the antenna and the balloon on the box.

Mosa-RT (21/09/2022)

On the 21st of September we met with Mosa-RT to finalize the programming and solder the connections.

Launch day (25/09/2022)

On the day of the launch, all of the Deezers gathered at 09h00 at the entrance of the SHD. We did some final tests and found some problems in the code. We tried fixing it, but at 12h30 we really needed to go to the RMI. Once we were in the car one group worked on the code and the other one worked on the box. When we arrived the code was finally working.

Launch

We arrived at RMI at approximately 15h00, half an hour before we launched. There we put our sensors and Arduino’s in the payload and attached the antenna. After that we calibrated the antenna to the right frequency of 144.8 Mhz. The launch itself had a little delay, because there were people who explained what was going to happen. Because of that the launch took place at 15h50.

Tracking the payload

After the payload was launched we rushed to the car, so we could track it. When we got into the car we started the program, but when it had started we didn’t receive a signal. Fortunately, Mr. Geeroms placed an extra tracker so that we could retrieve the payload after it had already landed.

Retrieving the payload

After a delicious pizza we went to retrieve the payload. Finally, we found it, after a long walk. Unfortunately it wasn’t easily accessible, it was stuck high up in a tree. We tried several ways to get it out. But none of them succeeded. This meant that we had to go home empty-handed, nonetheless we sent a team back out to try again and they were able to retrieve the payload.

Conclusion

It might not have been a great success, but it was a lot of fun to work on. We were able to retrieve it after the wind blew it out of the tree after stormy conditions.