The HUNVEYOR-4a Hungarian, student made space probe

Hudoba, GyörgyObuda University

Alba Regia Technical Faculty

MAFIOK 2014 Pécs, 2014. augusztus 25-27.

Outline• Short introduction – where do I came from• What does HUNVEYOR mean?

– Aims, history and motivation– The structure of the HUNVEYOR-4

• The HUNVEYOR on the „Mars”– Preparing for the Mars2013– Experiments and results– Conclusions– Further plans for improvements

HUNVEYORHungarian UNiversity SurVEYOR

HUNVEYOR-1 ELTE, Budapest (1997.)HUNVEYOR-2 JPTE, Pécs HUNVEYOR-3 BDTF, SzombathelyHUNVEYOR-4 Székesfehérvár (2001.)

An educational space probe

Surveyor-7

Launch: January 7., 1968. 06:30:00 UTC Landing: january 10., 1968. 01:05:36 UTC Rocket: Atlas-Centaur Flying time: 65 hPosition: 41.01°S 348.59°ELanding mass: 305.7 kg

<= Surveyor 7, January 10th 1968.

„We choose to go to the Moon!”

Space race

Rice University, September 1962.

The 20th century gave a big boost for technology

for our everyday life

Some facts in 2014• We are living in the 21th century, 

in the so called Space Age• We are more and more technology dependent  (computer, smart phone, etc.)

At the same time • The interest is going downhill about the 

science and engineering • This  is a world wide phenomena• Things are going from bad to worse

The HUNVEYOR project is our answer to this challenge

 Aims The primary aim of the HUNVEYOR project at our Institute is: 

to form an attractive, meaningful and long term framework for the research and development

carried out by our students.

• gain interest among young people

• offering subjects for diploma and other project works

• obtaining skills in engineering, (self)organization and realization of products

• get acquainted with the latest technology

• serve as reference in job hunting

Space Probe Control Unit

INTERNETINTERNET

Client

Webcams

I2C bus

I2C Device

Control Unit

Interface

HUSAR

Interface

Analoguemodules

Interface

EMU

XML-RPC calls

Terrestial Control Unit

SQL

XML-RPC client

WEB server

(HTML&

PHP)XML-RPC

server

I/O komm. module

USB

The structure of the

HUNVEYOR-4

Sola

r pan

el

http://hunveyor.arek.uni-obuda.hu

IP: 193.224.148.9

PPM

Stepper motors.... etc

Radio link... etc.

Vibration & other senzors

Devices

wind speed, direction

and temperature

gas, humidity, air pressure, noise, lightning, light intensity and

spectral intensity

Devices

vibration

g-detector

webcameras

Radio controlled rower (HUSAR)

Devices

Devices

Solar panel (with intelligent

charger, battery pack and

equatorial Sun tracking mechanism)

and a

dish (for 2.4 GHz wlan communication)

Ready to Mars?

(contact) Problems at the start

Problem• #1 – The 2.4 GHz wlan did 

not worked

Root cause• During the transportation 

one card in one of the access point went loose (bad contact)

(contact) Problems at the start

Problem• #1 – The 2.4 GHz wlan did 

not worked

• #2 – The Sun tracking  unit has failed

Root cause• During the transportation 

one card in one of the access point went loose (bad contact)

• In the final hurry by an accidental shortcut the driver tranzistor has died (insulation was missing, unwanted contact)

Mars2013 experiments

Testing Hunveyor-4 portability, and ability for

continuous work

Intention Result

The HUNVEYOR survived the transportationWe successfully connect ed to the device and could retrieve some data. We have 619 data sets from the meteorological stationUnfortunately after a few days the controller failed

• Camera observations of the quality of surface events and forms

- rock surface textures- windswept sandy surface and wind transport (dunes, lee forms) - dust devils- monitoring the magnetic particle content of the dust

- robotic arm observation in working: sand and smaller clast and pebble manipulations

• Robotic arm observation in working: sand and smaller clast and pebble manipulations

• Stereo-camera observations for guiding the sample collecting rower

Intention Result

After a few days we lost the USB devices

• Instrumental measurements:- monitoring insolation- analyzing spectral composition of the light and its daily changes- monitoring noise level- monitoring humidity- monitoring temperature in different places (outside, under the hood, processor)- monitoring wind speed and direction changes- monitoring high energy particle radiation

Intention Result

After a few days we lost the USB devices

Root cause:Flash memory erased 

in the IIC/USB controller

Some data collected by IIC devices

Some data collected by IIC devices

2013.02.06 10:55:13 - 2013.02.06 12:53:14

• Testing the soil collecting rower: (mobility, range, radio communication)

• Rough spectral analysis of the soil

• Data collection, transmission and storage in a data base for later retrieval and analysis

Intention Result

Failed, because we lost the USB devices

Failed, because we lost the USB devices

We have 619 data sets from the meteorological

station

• Ttesting our new concept: data collection using an experimental dynamic configurable sensor network

Intention Result

We have some data sets from the small sensors,

but due to the USB failure the process

interrupted

Small sensors and data loggers (MOTs)

lightair pressuretemperaturehumidity

3D accelerometermagnetic field sensor

Our concept

Data collecing with a rowerSophisticated, but

heavy, expensivedata at one time from one site only

Data collecing with MOTs, spreading out during landing even thousends

simple, light, inexpensivedata at the same time from big area

Uptime and Internet Connection

The solar panel and the battery pack worked excellent, so the HUNVEYOR could have been continuously up more

than 24 hours

At home again

Electrostatic dust 

accumulation

Upper side

and from below

ConclusionsDespite of the hardware failure, we consider the

field test as a success, because the space probe was not designed to operate in harsh

environment, and performed better, than we expected.

Further plans for improvementsFor a more robust solution we plan to redesign

the probe for Raspberry PI.

Thank you for your kind attention