Message from Keith Bennett, Science Team Director

JUNE 13, 2001 — After a series of technical challenges and three weeks of trouble-shooting, the student engineering team developing the Palantir Technology Demonstration payload has decided not to fly the payload. The payload was to be attached to the side of Steve Fossett's Solo Spirit 2001 balloon and gather pictures and atmospheric data. This was not an easy decision to make after a semester of work and many sleepless nights. However, the decision was unanimous among the student engineering team not to fly a system that possessed known flaws.

These students will continue working in mission control at Washington University in St. Louis, assisting members of Fossett's team in monitoring the flight.

Numerous problems were slowly surmounted until a final stubborn power issue doomed the payload. Originally, the project called for the use of the Amateur Radio Satellite network to transmit back data and pictures captured by the payload, as well as receive commands from operators in mission control. However, the idea was scrapped after the Amateur Radio Satellite protocol was determined to be too complex to implement in the compressed schedule that the students were operating in.

The team then moved to the back-up plan of using numerous ground stations around the globe to pull data off the payload as Steve Fossett's balloon passed overhead. More issues arose when two members of the team arrived in Australia and began preliminary tests. The payload's hard drive was damaged in transit and later testing revealed problems with the ground station communication software. Fortunately, these problems were solved leaving the payload fully functional.

Having overcome these two hurdles the team was confident that the flight would be successful. However, tragedy struck during a prolonged "endurance test" when an abnormal power spike of unknown origin damaged the hard drive, this time beyond recovery. It is believed that there was something fundamentally wrong with the underlying power system.

While a replacement flight hard drive was shipped down to Australia, it was determined that even if the payload could be made operational, the unknown power issue would very likely reoccur. Testing with a replacement hard disk confirmed this decision.

The risk of sending up the payload with a known power issue that would very likely damage the internal components of the technology demo was deemed too great.

The technology demonstration has given the engineering team invaluable experience in building and testing real world systems, the true goal of the project. These lessons - the value of careful planning, managing and testing - can't be learned in the classroom. The Palantir Technology Demonstration has given the student engineering team a unique learning experience - a taste of the inherent complexities of engineering. The team will now pursue other opportunities in space engineering and remote monitoring.

WU students' prototype Palantir Picosatellite to fly on Steve Fossett's next global circumnavigation balloon flight

Palantir project is a student-led research project aimed at improving man's ability to understand space through unmanned satellites and robotic probes. The Palantir system consists of a series of small microsatellites combined with new advanced ground systems. Palantir will allow the ground users to 'experience' space from the point of view of the Palantir microsatellites. The Palantir system consists of the Palantir microsatellites transmitting image data through a ground station network to both remote desktop computer users and advanced immersive visualization systems. The Palantir microsatellites are based on the Cubesat concept developed by Stanford and CalPoly. Cubesats are a standardized 4’ cube designed to use a common launch system. The Palantir microsatellite includes an on-board imaging system capable of capturing wide-angle imagry.

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WU students working with Project Aria gets kids into space

Project Aria is a Washington University education and outreach program designed to aid both engineering undergraduates and St. Louis regional elementary and secondary students. Project Aria is a hands-on space engineering/science program that allows students to gain engineering and science experience through the analysis, design, manufacture, launch, and operations of various space-related projects including spacecraft and space technology projects. It allows them to work with multi-disciplinary teams on a project beyond the scope of any one person or one discipline. The purpose for bringing in elementary and secondary students is to encourage them to go into a science, engineering, or technology field by exposing them to exciting work prior to their making career choices.