Things did not go to plan for NASA’s SuperBIT [Super Pressure Ballon Imaging Teslescope]. Communications and a rough landing could have spelled disaster if it weren’t for some trusty Raspberry Pis!!
Shortly after launch the Starlink connection went down and the US TDRSS [Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System] was unstable. During re-entry a parachute failed and the telescope was destroyed. All was not lost thanks to the Raspberry Pi 3B powered DRS [Data Recovery System].
Each capsule included a Raspberry Pi 3B and 5TB of solid-state storage. A parachute, a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, and an Iridium short-burst data transceiver were also included so the hardware could report its location to the recovery team. The capsules were connected to the main payload via Ethernet, and 24V DC was also available.
“For a relatively small cost, we insured the scientific returns of superBIT against a loss event that came true: high bandwidth communication links failed, then the telescope was destroyed upon landing.”
The design and software is open source and freely available. According to the team, further development is continuing at NASA.
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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!