WELCOME TO BLACK SKY ROBOTICS
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Black Sky Robotics is a family run hobby to send a homebuilt autonomous satellite into near-space, and monitor it in real time through its own tracking telemetry. |
[Note - the exact mission is not disclosed for good reasons... Here is at least some background on the contents]
Never say space is cheap. We now have an awesome set of hardware, including:
This started as a third grade science project, three years later we have this:
Designer/Builder
Designs, builds, codes, tests these pseudo satellites until they work. Don't ask me how long I've spent on this.
Son, release mechanism engineer
Figures out how to conduct experiments, release "objects" in sub-freezing conditions.
Daughter, parachute maker
Responsible for high altitude deployment of a parachute. What could go possibly go wrong?
Mailbox
Our mailbox, who collects and holds onto the steady trickle of eBayed robot parts. Yummy!
Dog
Licks and sniffs at stuff, protects equipment from squirrels. Has been known to disappear with radar reflectors
Follow the progress of the satellite as it was built, plus some stories from previous simulations and launches.
If the satellite is in the air (or a simulation is active), you'll see a live track and marker for where the satellite is, and where the launch/chase crew is.
Those starship enterprise decks with blinky red/yellow/green lights? Yup, got those, plus position, altitude, temperature, battery levels and data on satellite status, downlink speeds, etc. .
Near real-time (if in flight) photos and videos taken at different altitudes, all geo-tagged. Videos are automatically uploaded to YouTube.
The motherlode of current or historic flights and simulations - raw logs, KML files, graphs of temperature vs. altitude, or whatever you ask of it.
A password protected Admin site that lets me send the satellite manual commands, purge old data to keep performance up.
