A new edition of the Servet citizen science project is coming, which will launch several experiments thousands of metres up on 28 October (weather permitting). Servet IX offers citizens the opportunity to take part in designing and building capsules that will be launched to the stratosphere on sounding balloons. No specialist knowledge is required, only skills related to the maker universe and an interest in astronautics, space navigation or the Internet of Things. These are the selected experiments:
SOBC Test by Josep Curto Lapeira
This year’s capsule will be the SOBC (Servet OnBoard Computer). The SOBC is a set of systems such as GPS, temperature sensors, a LoRaWAN transmitter over TTN… The aim is to make it easier for anyone, with or without experience, to develop the hardware for sounding balloon launches or similar.
The SOBC will transmit the GPS position and temperature data, both inside and outside the capsule, among other data of interest, every few minutes. Everything will also be saved to an SD card, so data loss caused by a lack of connection to the TTN network will be avoided. When the capsule is recovered, all that data can be analysed to look for patterns in the fall and rise of temperature and to find out whether the interior is sufficiently insulated; this will also be useful for future capsules, as it may allow the weight of the insulation to be reduced and used for the payload.
The idea is for the SOBC to be the basis for any sounding balloon launch, able to monitor, store and send all the flight information. All the documentation will be released as open source once it is finished so that anyone can make use of it.
GENSAT-1 by Antonio Prieto Rodríguez
The project has two main objectives. The first is to serve as a technology demonstrator for the later design of a 1U CubeSat (10x10x10 cm), both technically (power, thermal insulation, communications, sensors, electronics and structure) and scientifically (payload). No CubeSat has ever been developed in the autonomous community of Castile and León, and we, at maker level, have put forward
a proposal and presented a conceptual and functional prototype to lecturers at the University of León, who have shown interest in the design.
The stratospheric flight would serve to demonstrate the feasibility of the project at low cost, in order to keep moving the proposal forward and try to get that institution to collaborate with us in the future.
The second objective is scientific and consists of four experiments aimed at demonstrating the
usefulness that can be obtained from short-duration stratospheric experiments as a
step before missions in LEO orbit (or stratospheric, using HAPS) with a CubeSat.
tinyHAB by @g4lile0
Open-source base for integrating missions into the tinyGS network, with validation of received packets, authentication of control commands, and repeat and broadcast options between probes and base stations. The idea is to use two probes of less than 150 grams, one on each balloon, to test different types of communication: two-way and even relaying between them and the ground stations. The probes’ information will be published in real time through the tinyGS.com website and the Telegram telemetry channel.
GLOBUS9 by Xavier León Anglès
Biology experiments with seeds. Experiments with different types of legumes and tree seeds with different activation days. Testing the tracking equipment for recovering the capsule. Our own software shows the capsule’s position on a map and predicts where it will land.
StarDust by César Rangil López
The main scientific mission is the collection of atmospheric particles at different altitudes for later counting and analysis. The collection will be done on a disc to which adhesive tape is attached, where the particles will stick. Depending on the altitude of the probe, the disc will rotate to expose a different section to the atmosphere. How the disc rotation is driven has yet to be defined. It will be done with either a servo or a stepper motor.
It is also planned that, by means of a command sent from the ground station, the disc will return to its rest position to protect the sample during the probe’s descent and landing.
The weight will be around 400 grams, the limit set by the call. Communication will use LoRa at 868 MHz, and it will also carry an APRS tracker at 144.8 MHz
Olives in the sky by Aina Ferre Serra, Júlia Ferre Serra, Jaume Ferre Algarra and Mònica Serra Benedicto
We want to analyse how solar radiation affects the acidity of olive oil. To do this, we will take a handful of olives from our olive trees; half will stay at home and the other half will travel to the stratosphere inside the capsule. Once the capsule is recovered, we will make oil from the two samples of olives and measure its acidity. To keep track of what is happening in the capsule, we will monitor pressure and temperature with an Arduino Nano board, plus one camera recording the inside of the capsule and another the outside.
S3I (Servet’s Stratospheric Stereoscopic Imager) by Juampe López
The capsule will take stereoscopic images (left eye and right eye) of the stratosphere and store them so that we can experiment with them after landing using computer vision.
Servet is a project of the University of Zaragoza through the Aragon Engineering Research Institute (I3A) and the Ibercivis Foundation. It also has the support of Etopia Centre for Art and Technology, the CESAR Laboratories at Etopia and the Spanish Radio Amateurs Union, and is funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science and Innovation.