Team MuonCritical Design Review

Jennifer NillChelsea Donaldson

Graham RischJonathan Lumpkin

Henry Shennan

October 5, 2010

Fall 2010 R

ev A/B

10-05-10

Mission Overview

The purpose of our experiment is to determine how the number of high energy particles of ionizing radiation incident on a given area in a given period of time varies with the detector’s altitude. Particles produced as a result of air showers caused by the collision of

cosmic rays with atmospheric matter. Specifically detecting muons (µ-).

Control measurement provided by a ground-based detector.

Secondary purpose: To determine if the difference between muon flux at maximum altitude and the simultaneous flux on the ground support the conclusion that the relativistic effect of time dilation from the observer’s reference frame results in a greater flux on the ground than the value predicted by non-relativistic parameters.

Because we CAN!

Requirements Flow Down Requirements set in Class:

Must be under 850g, fly a camera, contain a HOBO, etc… Requirements set by our Team:

Whenever possible, the walls of the craft shall be used to provide structural support to eliminate the need for additional supports and saving weight.

Donated materials shall be used wherever possible in order to decrease the cost of the experiment. Several of the larger expenses, namely the two necessary photomultiplier tubes, will be eliminated through donations.

The circuit board for the detector control shall be etched by hand to eliminate the expense of professional PCB fabrication.

Materials durable enough to withstand brief shock and significant, sustained vibration (as determined by testing) must be used in the construction of the aerial component.

Plastic-based scintillators shall be used in lieu of the traditional glass scintillators for their better thermal properties (no reduction in performance from 0 ｰ C to -60 ｰ C) and for their durability.

Onboard electronics shall be placed on foam footers to reduce the effects of mechanical shock. The craft must include a thermally insulated section where the onboard electronics and

secondary mission payloads will be maintained within their reliable operating temperatures (assumed to be greater than -10 ｰ C) The scintillators shall be supported mechanically in order to maintain their separation when

influenced by shock or extreme air pressure.

Requirements Flow Down Team Requirements (cont’d):

A pair of scintillators shall be used to detect and determine the directionality of incident high-energy ionizing radiation.

Photomultiplier tubes appended to each scintillator paddle shall allow the detector to make measurements with the sufficient sensitivity to achieve the objectives of the mission.

A microcontroller and flash memory must be used to collect and record data at 5s intervals from the detector board and record that data in a format in which it can later be easily extracted for analysis.

A ground-based cosmic ray detector must be either built or acquired. The two detectors must be calibrated relative to each other so that the ground-based

detector may take data to act as the baseline to which measurements made at altitude may be accurately compared.

The firmware of a A570IS Canon digital camera must be reprogrammed to take photographs at specific intervals for the duration of the flight.

Drawing

Functional Block Diagram Figure 3.1: Functional Block Diagram of the Flight Component Figure 3.2: Functional Block Diagram of the Detector 3.3.2 Design Drawings Figure 3.3: Flight Component Design

Arduino Duemilanove Flash ROM

Cosmic Ray Detector

Detector Interface Board and Counter

HOBO data logger (interior/exterior temperature sensors and interior humidity sensor)

Resistive Heater

Canon A570IS camera (includes onboard power, data storage, and timing firmware)

9V batteries

External switch

Data extraction via USB

Scintillator B

Scintillator A PMT

PMT

Detector Electronics (correlator and hit counter)

Arduino

Particle Shower

Meeting Requirements

Our Balloon SAT has been designed to ascend to about 30-40km and be able to return safely without harming our payloads.

We have designed our spacecraft within the requirements set by the class. Under 850g, HOBO, camera, etc..

PartsPart Description Manufacturer Supplier Dimensions Weight Cost

S1 A570IS camera and accessories Canon GTS 45x75x90mm 200g N/A

S2 HOBO data logger Onset Inc. GTS 68x48x19mm 30g N/A

S3 Arduino Microcontroller Arduino Sparkfun 70x53x6mm 40g $25.00

P1 Scintillator plates (x2) (EJ-200) Eljen Tech. Eljen Tech. 70x50x7mm 60g ea. $120.00

P2 Photomultiplier tubes (x2) RCA Phys. Dept. 20mm dia., 70mm long

35g ea. donated

P3 Light paper (thick black cardstock) generic Shennan 3m3 20g N/A

P4 Type HS-2 Optical Cement 1oz Summers Optical

Summers Optical

N/A <5g $18.00

P5 PMT Wire sockets (x2) RCA Phys. Dept. 22mm dia., 5mm long

5g ea. donated

P6 Electronics board for detector control

Variable J.B. Saunders 70x60x10mm 65g $55.00 est.

A1 Foam Board unknown GTS 4mm, 1.3m3 60g N/A

A2 Foam Insulation unknown GTS 6mm, 0.8m3 50g N/A

A3 Heating circuit, excl. batteries unknown GTS 10x50x50mm 55g N/A

A4 10 9V batteries (3 flight, 7 testing) Duracell McGuckin’s 48x25x15 <35g flight

$30.00†

T CO2 (s) (temperature testing) N/A Safeway’s N/A N/A $5.00†G* Cosmic Ray Detector N/A Shennan 200x150x150

mm2500g+ N/A

Mass and Money Budgets

The estimated cost of our experiment is $218 Our estimated weight is 755g

Schedule10/4 Scintillators and PMTs ordered for the two detectors

10/7 Interface board design complete

10/8 Parts arrive

10/10 Boards for both detectors drawn up and simulated

10/11 Scintillator Testing

10/12 Boards etched and populated

10/14 Boards tested independent of PMT/scintillator assembly

10/14 Microcontroller compatibility testing

10/18 Ground detector assembled and structure testing

10/19 Testing on ground detector completed

10/20 Balloon SAT assembled

10/21 Functional testing on aerial Balloon SAT completed

10/24 Final Product Testing

10/26 Pre-Launch Inspection

10/28 Mission simulation (in-class)

11/2 LLR presentation and DD Rev C

11/5 Weigh In and Turn in

11/06 Launch Date

11/30 Final Presentations due

12/4 Design document Rev D due and Design Expo

12/7 Hardware Turn In

*Team Meetings every Sunday at 6 PM

Test Plan

Whip Test Temperature Test

Test for data collection integrity Effect of temp on Scintillator readings

Pressure’s effect on Scintillator readings Light Leak Test Scintillator Efficiency

Test Plan Schedule

Date Description

10/11 Finish Scintillator Testing

10/18 Finish Structure Testing

10/21 Payload Testing

10/24 Final Product Testing

   

10/26/10 Pre-Launch Inspection

10/28/10 In Class Mission Simulation

11/05/10 Satellite Turn In Date

11/06/10 Launch Date

First Draft of Expected Results

We expect to find that the higher in altitude our balloon SAT is the more cosmic rays we will detect.

This is because muons decay as they travel through the atmosphere, therefore less muons make it to the ground than they do 30km.

Team Organizational Chart

Henry Graham Jen Jon Chelsea

Team LeaderScintillator Design and Testing

ElectronicsScintillator Design and Testing

Scintillator Design and TestingElectronics

StructuresData collection

Team LeaderStructures and Data collection

Our Biggest Worries…

Time- already had to change our entire project so we have lost a lot of time.

Identifying muons rather than other particles in the atmosphere (we hope to accomplish this using multiple scintillators and looking at the charge differences).

Making sure our design meets all requirements (such as internal temperature control).