Introduction: Temperature and Humidity Cubesat
How can we design, build, and program a model of a Mars Orbiter, that will collect data and inform us on specific aspects of the planet?
By: Abe, Mason, Jackson, and Wyatt
Step 1: Planning
- Brainstorm and Research designs for Cubesats and its purpose
- Create designs for different CubeSats and decide which is most suitable
- Find information on the parts and materials you'll need
- Gather what materials you will be needed to build your CubeSat
Materials
- Popsicle sticks
- Wood Glue
- Arduino
- DHT11 sensor
- Wires
- Tape
- SD card
- SD card reader
Step 2: Build the Structure for the CubeSat
- Create the structure by gluing Popsicle sticks together in the shape of X's overlapping with a boarder of Popsicle sticks on the outsides, the top and bottom are covered side to side of the Popsicle sticks.
- For the shelf, it's Popsicle sticks glued together side to side glued half way up on the inside.
- The reason for the shelf is for the inside of the Cube sat so the arduino has a spot inside the Cube sat.
- On the bottom that is where the bread board and the battery will be.
- To secure the parts we used tape, to make a door so that we can get we used tape so it would be easy place the ardunio and parts.
- The pictures above are a sample of what its supposed to look like after it has been completed.
Step 3: Coding the Arduino
- Go to circuitbasics.com and search up DHT11 and there you will find the code
#include
dht DHT;
#define DHT11_PIN 7
void setup(){ Serial.begin(9600); }
void loop() { int chk = DHT.read11(DHT11_PIN); Serial.print("Temperature = "); Serial.println(DHT.temperature); Serial.print("Humidity = "); Serial.println(DHT.humidity); delay(1000); }
- That is the code we used for the arduino
void setup() {
// Open serial communications and wait for port to open: Serial.begin(9600); while (!Serial) { ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for native USB port only }
Serial.print("Initializing SD card...");
if (!SD.begin(4)) { Serial.println("initialization failed!"); while (1); } Serial.println("initialization done.");
// open the file. note that only one file can be open at a time, // so you have to close this one before opening another. myFile = SD.open("test.txt", FILE_WRITE);
// if the file opened okay, write to it: if (myFile) { Serial.print("Writing to test.txt..."); myFile.println("testing 1, 2, 3."); // close the file: myFile.close(); Serial.println("done."); } else { // if the file didn't open, print an error: Serial.println("error opening test.txt"); }
// re-open the file for reading: myFile = SD.open("test.txt"); if (myFile) { Serial.println("test.txt:");
// read from the file until there's nothing else in it: while (myFile.available()) { Serial.write(myFile.read()); } // close the file: myFile.close(); } else { // if the file didn't open, print an error: Serial.println("error opening test.txt"); } }
void loop() { // nothing happens after setup }
- And that is the code for the SD Card reader
Step 4: Testing
- We conducted 2 different tests on our CubeSat
1. The Shake Test- we placed our CubeSat on the shake machine for 30 seconds to see if it would hold together
-passed
2. The Flight Test- we connected our CubeSat to a string and had it orbit around a model mars for 30 seconds to see if it could hold the weight of the CubeSat.
-passed
Step 5: Present to an Audience
- The final part of the process is to share your data and results with the others in your class, co-workers, etc.
- The information shared should include: data collected, test results, the process of the project, and an overview of what the project actually was.
- When presenting use the arduino or Cubesat for people to see what you made and also have a computer out to display the information being presented.
- Make sure to speak loud enough so the audience can hear you loud and clear
- Make eye contact with the audience and create an interactive presentation.