MrOnak

Very clean @Daid, I like it

Small update: The extended front panel for the DSKY is ready: Man am I glad that one is done. Too many wire bridges to count (mostly hidden underneath the 7-segments)... But I now have the display part of the "classic" Apollo DSKY ready (left half: PROG, VERB, NOUN with 2 digits each plus three rows of 5 digit displays). On the right half of the board you see what I call the "extended DSKY" with 2x8 digit displays on the bottom, three bar graph displays in the middle plus 24 status lights on top. All 5-digit and 8-digit 7-segment displays will be programmable to display anything that KSPIO has to offer, plus - when I get to it - additional information such as delta-V remaining, air pressure, time-to-touchdown etc which will have to be calculated. The bar graphs again will be programmable to display anything where I can gather a percentage from what KSPIO gives me - fuel remaining in stage or total, electrical charge, monoprop, ... With "programmable" I mean that during the mission in-game I'll be able to assign values to be displayed on each of these displays by entering the respective VERB/NOUN combination with the keys which will be below the display - see first post for a vector graphic. The status lights will be used for all sorts of things from uplink confirmation, SAS, RCS, ..., indication lights for the left side panel such as error indication, PROG/VERB/NOUN indication, standby and reset indicators as well as warning lights (bottom row) for velocity, altitude, fuel, g-force and electric charge. The bottom row of status lights have one yellow and red LED each, i.e. set to 10% and 5% fuel warning. Three of the indicator lights remain unused as of now, plus I do have two additional pins available in the schematic to add more but they are not wired yet. The schematic for the final perf board (the one that will use Zitronen KSPIO plugin) is ready, I just need to find a day to make the sucker and then I can finally begin to assemble the whole thing

@masterdies: The plugin comes with a config file in GameData\KSPSerialIO\PluginData\KSPSerialIO\config.xml. The COM port used by the KSP-side of the plugin is configured with the "DefaultPort" setting in there - default is COM1. Edit this value before starting KSP and it will expect the microcontroller to be present at that port. Once KSP is running you're free to keep updating your code on the microcontroller until you get it right - just keep switching between the VAB and the launchpad (for example) to have the KSP-side of the plugin attempting a fresh handshake with the microcontroller

Well the IOS cube isn't smaller than the 1U cubesat from CalPoly that you seem to want to use so I really don't see your argument. Anyway, I'll let you all do your own research

*sigh* From the IOS brochure: Mass is equivalent to the CalPoly spec, outer dimensions are equivalent to the CalPoly spec - not sure what you're referring to when you say "too small space for the payload" considering that most of your subsystems are not even vaguely decided on. Solar panels are included. You won't need radiation hardened electronics, there are lots of CubeSats with non-hardened electronics in LEO roughly equivalent to what IOS provides without and they're working just fine. However, what makes Interorbitals worth looking at is not whether they give you solar panels or radiation hardened equipment but that you get a launch included in the price which you won't get from many others.

@NERVAFan: Well true there are delays in Interorbitals Schedules but they have gone suborbital already and some of their customers expressed careful optimism that the year 2015 might be realistic for orbital launches. Does the KSP CubeSat initiative have a milestone plan as of now? If what I believe is right and you don't, I really don't see why "not any time soon" would be an issue for this.

Holy crap! If you pull that off I want a vid... erm... nevermind. Actually I would like a video of that. Just because you can't see doesn't mean we can't

OOOoooooooOOOooooh shinies! That is good news, glad I made room for that one more serial shift register now

Sorry if I'm wrong but if you manage to get a well conducting sliding contact through the plastic of the petri dish and remain a pressure tight seal that survives the rigours of launch, you can get a wire through that as well.

Works again Zitronen. That's Career with all lvl 1 facilities, testing readouts. NOT testing active controls

I tried it in Career, works fine. Not sure what happened there @Freshmeat. @Zitronen: No hassles, I'll manage . You keep steering your project the way you see fit. Till now you've done a fabulous job of it and I trust that won't seize suddenly. If there will be a time where I want to fork to add more telemetry data to the KSP -> microcontroller downlink I might do so but I've got my schedule so busy with other projects (*cough* PCB mill *cough*) that that's far off. All is good

Well you should calculate the difference in terms of radius, not diameter since that is what affects the change in gravity, but regardless, you're right... http://www.endmemo.com/bio/grpm.php

Quick heads-up: Interorbital Systems are offering CubeSat kits that include a free launch with them for around 21,000 USD. Details of what's included are in the brochure. Noteworthy is that their CubeSat is of the same form factor but minor things have changed in respect to the CalPoly spec to there is no guarantee that their specific model would be able to fly on other launch providers, in case something happens with Interorbital System. May or may not be a deal breaker but definitely something to keep in mind. That said, their price is pretty good compared to the alternatives I've found so far.

Cmdr Freshmeat, please come in. Systems have been patched, you should be ready to go. Protocols for reactivation as follows: - stow those snacks. hover up the crumbs, you know how much the open circuits on panel F9 love crumbs. - Re-engage fuses and 0x92, 0x74 and 0x32, in that order - restart auxiliary systems, wait for warning light 0x37 to go dark - engage SAS and verify attitude control - ensure valve pressure on SE to be above 0.8 Once confirmed, you're good to set temperature and cabin pressure to nominal levels, break comms silence and proceed with the mission plan. Confirm when ready.

The passive parts (reading the values etc) works perfectly fine. No idea about active control though, I can't test this with the setup I have with me during the week. Good job with the quick fix

Hmmm, that's interesting, do you have a source for this? Not that I don't believe it but it pretty much contradicts what I've read and I want to know more. That aside: The Cubesat has exactly one possible orientation inside the P-POD, that is, -Z side of the CubeSat is going into the P-POD first (spec. page 9, paragraph 3.2.2) and the side of the CubeSat with the access port (+X) is where the door of the P-POD is (design spec drawing in Appendix 1, section B vs. P-POD coordinate system on page 8). So, marking something as "UP" is not possible. So if what you're saying is right then the P-POD won't be mounted diagonally, but any of the six sides of the P-POD may be "up" at launch from how I understand it. Since the CubeSat's orientation inside the P-POD is fixed, my argument still stands I believe but I'll be happy if that's wrong. Since I've checked the spec, the center of gravity of a 1U CubeSat must be within 2cm from its geometric center in all three axis (page 9, 3.2.14).

Alright pilot! You've trained for this! Here's procedure: - ensure stable orbit, correct if necessary - disengage RCS and SAS - switch off external lights - emergency beacon to program FFS. - shut off all auxiliary systems - break comm silence only in emergencies - Reduce cabin pressure to 0.7 - reduce cabin temperature to 18 - Disengage fuses 0x32, 0x74 and 0x92 - Grab the snacks from F5 and rest in your cabin hang in there boy, help is on the way ...and remember, it could be worse

Thanks for clarifying this! This might be tricky, it's very unlikely that you can predict which side of the cube will be "up" during launch. depending on where you hitch a ride on the P-Pod may point up, diagonally or horizontally and any of the CubeSats six sides may end up "up". It all boils down to where there is space in the fairing next to the first class citizens with which the CubeSat hitches a ride. BTW, what material will the "petri dish" be made of? Being able to hold the air in a hard vaccum, not cracking / deforming during the temperature range, and the extreme shaking during launch are all... shall we say... challenging for a 1mm thick plastic bit. At least that's what my gut says but I have absolutely no clue about material-stress calculations, just a thought that popped up. I think acryllic is formable from around 100°C but I might be wrong.

*cough* 0.9 is out note for anyone using my AVR C port of Zitronens plugin - I won't be able to test functionality until the weekend.

Woah, lots of new posts. Just a quick note before I run off to work, since someone mentioned acryllic: You want to be careful with outgassing, especially since you have a camera lens right in front of it which may get coated with the outgassed stuff. I didn't have proper time to find plastics in them but both ESA and NASA have extensive outgassing databases. Once a suitable container is found I'd say get one or a few put moss inside let it grow at in the fridge for a week or so then one day put it in dry ice for 45 minutes, then heat it up with a 100 Watt bulb for another 45, rinse repeat for a day bring it back to a lab and see if it survived that If not - time to figure out insulation.

I really like that design! Simple, light, and probably doable without lubricants, which is kind of important. Its probably even possible to extend the part of the axle that goes toward the wall such that you can fit a heater and the batteries behind the dishes. Again, that way you'd help balancing and heat up both things that need heating the most with a single heater. What I mean with balancing: If I remember correctly the center of mass must be within 3cm of the center of volume. By putting the battery outside helps counter-weighting (is that a word?) the electronics that might be on the other opposing wall.

Hmm, I'm not sure whether it can or can not be done but I doubt it can and out of the box it doesn't work: You can't "snoop" the Serial connection while KSP and the Arduino talk to each other with a serial terminal, for example. Maybe someone with a bit more lowlevel knowledge on Serial comms can shed some light if it's possible at all.

That is true if I need the name for display purposes. In case I only need to know which one it is for lookup purposes (air pressure, atmospheric scale height, ...) I don't. But yeah let's try Strings, I'll report back when AVR C throws us a funny

First of all @Nicholander & @Newt: I wasn't attaching Nicholander and sorry if my post came across like I did. Having a 3d sketch is helpful to find flaws. I was merely pointing some of those out. The sketch will very likely go through dozens of iterations while hardware is being decided on so changing the sketch is inevitable. These three sound like the moss has to be on one end of the satellite? why is that? I'm guessing to maximize the artificial gravity? Well my point is, heaters take space, mass and use up precious electricity. Having two on board is something I'm not sure you can afford. Even more so since you have high demands on the spin rate, indicating a lot of power going to the magnetorquers. They come in all sorts of shape actually. one even roughly fits the box shape that you sketched: http://www.cubesatshop.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=102&category_id=7&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=69&vmcchk=1&Itemid=69 Despite its looks its a full 3-axis control system. You also get solar panels with integrated torquers (clyde-space and others) and the "classic" torque rod http://cubesatshop.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=75&category_id=7&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=69 Erm... according to the sketch it is 50% full of air actually. But as said I didn't do the math whether the magnets would actually disturb the controllers. If the moss chamber will be round as in the sketch then the corners might have enough space for torquerods. If your microcontrollers heat the whole satellite you're in trouble. They won't get warm. The thing is, most off-the-shelf electronics is specified to work between -40°C and +85°C, give or take. Since your sat is spinning you most likely won' exceed the +85°C. But you very possibly might dip below -40°C. The batteries don't like to be below freezing, that makes heating them during the night cycle pretty much mandatory unless you're constantly drawing so much power that they keep themselves warm. Since you want to study the growth of moss I'd assume that it helps with growth if it is kept above freezing as well but I'm clueless about biology so I'll leave that to others . Bottom line (by gut feeling only!) is I wouldn't worry about radiators until thermal modelling indicates you need them. First they prevent scratching / destroying the solar panels when the cubesats are stacked inside the P-POD. Second, two of the bottom pads typically have springs to separate the CubeSats from each other after leaving the P-POD. Third, at least one of the other two is required to have a switch that disables the sat when pressed down, to prevent the sat from "doing things" in the time between pulling the remove-before-flight pin and being pushed out of the P-POD. The solidworks model is great by the way! are the panels individual pieces by any chance? I'm wondering whether its possible to export them as individual .stl files for 3d printing.

I'd prefer a 8-bit index to be honest... much(!) shorter, still has 256 possibilities and quite frankly I've run into messy issues with Strings over serial quite often. Use the 7 byte you'd save on SOI to transmit vehicle mass and combined engine ISP... that'd greatly help with attitude and guidance computers By the way thanks for the continuous update interval change on time warp!