Progress so far: outreach campaign, purchase of materials and implementation of the project
The experiment consists of measuring the performance of solar panels in the upper layers of the atmosphere
IES Ramón Menéndez Pidal in Avilés presents the scientific project “MENSAT-I” with which they will take part in the #ServetVI launches in spring 2022.
Our students are already working actively on the project. After a first outreach campaign aimed at the educational community, part of the material has been acquired and the implementation of the project has begun. We have a blog where we post our progress as a diary of the experiment’s advances.
For the electronics we have acquired an Arduino MKR controller with a sensor hat, which we are evaluating for its behaviour and the accuracy of its measurements of physical parameters. For telemetry, we are investigating LoRa communications through the TTN platform, although we have some problems with TTN network coverage at the school.
We are finishing a first prototype that will let us measure the elementary physical quantities (temperature, pressure, etc.) as well as GPS position, and upload the data to the cloud through TTN so we can view them in real time.
As for the experiment itself (measuring the performance of solar panels in the upper layers of the atmosphere), we will start working with them next week (as soon as we receive the solar panels that the students selected and that we have just ordered).