People Involved
Purpose of Project
ADAT would allow a machine to do the hard work of pointing the antenna and allow the person previously monitoring the station to do other jobs that they couldn't do, like help setting up the balloon or navigating. ADAT will allow groups members to track the TV from the balloon during flight when they are in the car moving or are stationary. Because a machine would be pointing the antenna a person wouldn't have to sit with the antenna in the back of a truck moving it.
The antenna for receiving TV signals has a reduced front cone, meaning that if you don't get in about the right direction you won't get any signal. In the car receiving TV signals would be near impossible as a person would have to manually target the antenna based on the known position of the balloon and its direction of travel. They would also have to account for the travel of the car the antenna is based in.
On the ground, stationary, you don't have many of the previous problems encountered in a moving receiving platform. The setup and monitoring of the antenna would be simple. A large problem with this setup is that one person is now out of the picture for helping others with large tasks because they have to monitor where the antenna and the strength of the signal.
This project is important to VAST because of the camera we got for this project. Now that the initial plans are in place for the camera we can move to this new project that will allow better control over the camera and improve the signal we get from the balloon. Also this project might lead to how telemetry will be solved and will give us experience with this type of communication.
Project Deliverables
- Describe in detail all of the things you intend to deliver as a result of your work and when you plan to deliver each item. (1 paragraph or list with detailed descriptions)
Resources Required
- Rough estimate of the budget required to complete project. (table with cost estimates)
- Preliminary list of tool, labs, software etc… needed to complete project. (bulleted list of items)
- digital compass
Specifications
Concepts to be developed
- Dome for protecting the antenna from the elements.
- 180 deg azimuth rotation using hydraulic ram or motor.
- Hydraulic motor for bearing direction.
- ratings of hydraulic rams and or motors.
- photo gates or potentiometers for position encoding.
