Poster Presentation

Iridium system

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Abstract

This project is for the Iridium system that the BOREALIS lab uses for its payloads. The Iridium system is a modem that connects our custom PCB board, called an Occams board, to the Iridium satellite network so we can communicate to our payloads via our ground station. This system connects to our other payloads on our string using the XBee radio frequency module. These modules are also used as microcontrollers for other systems on our flights. The Iridium system connects to our valve system for venting helium from latex balloons and to our flight terminators. Each function we want to happen has its own respective code using a 3 bit binary number. The Xbee radio frequency modules are short range surface mounted modules that have a large amount of customization while still being fairly simplistic and have the ability to operate on Micropython programming. We also communicate to our flight terminators that have a flight line run through two loops of nichrome wire. When sent the code for termination, the nichrome wire is flooded with current and cuts the flight line. This severs the connection between the balloon and our payload string.

Keywords: Iridium, communication, BOREALIS

How to Cite:

Allick, K. J., (2022) “Iridium system”, Academic High Altitude Conference 2022(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/ahac.15628