Launch Rehearsal Notes 1/8/2020 Joe Rowell


Away team: Luke, Lili, Joe

Ground team: Emily, Ahmad


Utilize launch procedures/integration checklist


Launch Rehearsal

BBC covered charging port of cameras

Battery in avionics tower was dead, replaced with charged battery

Hooked up battery, possibly with wrong polarity, potentially frying telemega

Reversed polarity of battery and telemega and pyxida turned on

Solid core wire to telemega switch terminal disconnected, reason unknown

Groundstation was unable to turn on cameras through pyxida (we think camera fault)

Camera with BBC no longer turns on, going forward with launch rehearsal without camera

Wiring is loose throughout avionics tower (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! angery lili)

MARSA battery is hitting the camera case, swapping battery holders should fix

Ribbon cable from BBC is interfering with the ‘tube’


After loading avionics tower into the “tube”

MARSA successfully turned on

Telemega did not connect automatically to Luke’s away team telemega

Telemega did automatically connect to Emily’s launch line telemega

Upon selection use monitor idle instead of monitor flight in AltOS

Right now, telemega only connects when AltOS is using Monitor Idle, not when using Monitor Flight

Telemega has red led flash (receiving invalid packets) when monitoring flight

Pyxida successfully turned on and connected to groundstations (backup voltage temporarily turned green then back to red for away team 6.1.2 Pyxida (Lili’s)


Changes Made

Team changed the order of the switch terminals to (from left to right looking up): MARSA, Telemega, Pyxida Main, Backup


Changes to Make

Replace solid core wire for pyxida main/fix screw terminals

Fix blue and white twisted wires on the screw terminals

Make sure wires are secure before launch ops

Need a role for people to charge and bring all batteries before launch ops

Need charging cables for the nonstandard polarity batteries

fix all batteries

Bring multimeter

Replace hex key screws for battery casing with something more standard done

Possibly extend MARSA ground wire and power

locate marsa battery charger

Log max voltage of batteries, ensure all are nonstandard polarity or have an obvious system differentiating polarities

Swap MARSA battery holder to make fit

Get zip ties for cameras


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  1. Unknown User (astrocrg@mit.edu)

    Monitor idle vs. Monitor Flight on AltOS depends on the orientation that you activate the TeleMega. If you turn the TeleMega on when it is vertical, it will go into startup and 'Pad Idle' mode, which is viewed by selecting 'Monitor Flight'

    If the altimeter is turned on while sideways it will automatically inhibit all pyrochannels until it is power cycled. This is good for safety, but would result in a loss of mission in flight. If the altimeter is turned on sideways you can check its status by 'Monitor Idle'