I have gotten all the parts for the avionics components together. Here they are in the lab:
The components above will become our avionics test bed.
The components will allow us to fully test
- Position/Navigation/Timing
- telemetry
- para-foil control
- orbiter to orbiter relay/communication
- multiple orbiter to (multiple) ground station
- IMU
- Solar runtime
- Auto recovery from failure
- Cut off of the payload power for regulatory purposes
- sensing (temp/humidity) etc
The whole setup is portable , allowing for easy field testing in whatever conditions we can get to.
The avionics package is the core (FAA/ITAR) regulated component of the orbiter. It will be a sealed unit with it’s own (redundant) power systems, hardware watchdog etc.
More to come soon, as R&D spins up.