In-Space RF Communications and Virtual Reality Imagery: RockSat-X Suborbital Rocket Payload ‚ Project KAUIDA
Additional Funding Sources
The project described was supported by the NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium.
Abstract
Northwest Nazarene University (NNU, Nampa, Idaho) and Kaua`i Community College (KCC, Kauai, Hawaii) have both had previous successful undergraduate student teams in the RockSat-X suborbital space science program that is run by Colorado Space Grant Consortium and NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) in Virginia. This new project is collaboratively funded by both Idaho and Hawaii Space Grant Consortia. This RockSat-X project from the KAUIDA team (nicknamed for its two sponsors) will advance the space science/technology of RF communications and virtual reality (VR) imaging in space. The team consists of five undergrad students and faculty advisors at each school. It began with the 2019-20 school year and will continue (due to COVID-19) through the 2020-21 school year, concluding with an August 2021 launch aboard a Terrier-Malemute suborbital rocket out of NASA WFF.
NNU's 2016 RockSat-X RF-Tag mission and 2019 orbiting RFTSat (Radio Frequency Tag Satellite) mission both tested radio-frequency signal strength in space, using remote passive RF sensor tags with backscatter communication back to RF readers aboard each spacecraft. Unfortunately, this research was only able to be done on tags and readers at fixed distances apart (only a few centimeters), and extendable booms were not ready for flight on these missions. This new project will be able to incorporate variable distance testing, by extending this RF-tag test to one meter using a new motorized, extendible scissor boom, on the end of which will be the both the RF-tag, a 360° camera, and some other atmospheric sensors. RF received power and signal strength at both the tag and the reader will be measured as a function of the boom extension length, and this strength can be related as inverse squares of extension length. On the fixed end of this boom in the main body of the payload will be a GoPro camera looking down the boom towards the deployable hardware. This GoPro camera's view will be activated and recording from just prior to launch, continue through space, through fiery atmospheric re-entry, and down to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean at the end of the mission.
Also aboard the payload, a Ricoh Theta V 360° camera is mounted to the end of its meter-long motorized scissor boom that will record the process of it being extended away from the side of the rocket with its companion RF and sensor hardware, left in space for a few minutes, and then retracted back in before coming back to Earth. This will provide a unique perspective for the 360° video camera, showing the entire rocket body, the Earth below, and the sun and stars above while moving in and out of the rocket. We plan on using the recorded footage to generate a VR headset experience, and will motivate and inspire young students to be interested in the future of the aerospace field by giving them the same experience that a spacewalking astronaut has, an experience very few ever have the opportunity to enjoy today.
In-Space RF Communications and Virtual Reality Imagery: RockSat-X Suborbital Rocket Payload ‚ Project KAUIDA
Northwest Nazarene University (NNU, Nampa, Idaho) and Kaua`i Community College (KCC, Kauai, Hawaii) have both had previous successful undergraduate student teams in the RockSat-X suborbital space science program that is run by Colorado Space Grant Consortium and NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) in Virginia. This new project is collaboratively funded by both Idaho and Hawaii Space Grant Consortia. This RockSat-X project from the KAUIDA team (nicknamed for its two sponsors) will advance the space science/technology of RF communications and virtual reality (VR) imaging in space. The team consists of five undergrad students and faculty advisors at each school. It began with the 2019-20 school year and will continue (due to COVID-19) through the 2020-21 school year, concluding with an August 2021 launch aboard a Terrier-Malemute suborbital rocket out of NASA WFF.
NNU's 2016 RockSat-X RF-Tag mission and 2019 orbiting RFTSat (Radio Frequency Tag Satellite) mission both tested radio-frequency signal strength in space, using remote passive RF sensor tags with backscatter communication back to RF readers aboard each spacecraft. Unfortunately, this research was only able to be done on tags and readers at fixed distances apart (only a few centimeters), and extendable booms were not ready for flight on these missions. This new project will be able to incorporate variable distance testing, by extending this RF-tag test to one meter using a new motorized, extendible scissor boom, on the end of which will be the both the RF-tag, a 360° camera, and some other atmospheric sensors. RF received power and signal strength at both the tag and the reader will be measured as a function of the boom extension length, and this strength can be related as inverse squares of extension length. On the fixed end of this boom in the main body of the payload will be a GoPro camera looking down the boom towards the deployable hardware. This GoPro camera's view will be activated and recording from just prior to launch, continue through space, through fiery atmospheric re-entry, and down to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean at the end of the mission.
Also aboard the payload, a Ricoh Theta V 360° camera is mounted to the end of its meter-long motorized scissor boom that will record the process of it being extended away from the side of the rocket with its companion RF and sensor hardware, left in space for a few minutes, and then retracted back in before coming back to Earth. This will provide a unique perspective for the 360° video camera, showing the entire rocket body, the Earth below, and the sun and stars above while moving in and out of the rocket. We plan on using the recorded footage to generate a VR headset experience, and will motivate and inspire young students to be interested in the future of the aerospace field by giving them the same experience that a spacewalking astronaut has, an experience very few ever have the opportunity to enjoy today.