Last Thursday I presented my project proposal to the rest of the Computing degree class. I still have a few weeks to write the formal academic proposal, but explaining my aims and presenting my preliminary research to our lecturers and the rest of the class was a good reality check. Quick thoughts:
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Both lecturers seemed to agree with my research so far, and seemed okay with my aim, objectives and research question.
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I might need to find more papers relating directly to High-Altitude Balloons – a lot of my literature so far concerns nano-satellites – and papers on testing methods for space things.
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Some of my classmates made me realise that the final testing round – in the case where we get to fly the payload – will depend on much more than just my work, but also temperature, pressure, weather conditions… I need to make sure that I can evaluate my work and write the dissertation even if a flight is not possible, or does not go well.
I also got confirmation yesterday that Ian Ferguson will be my project supervisor. His advice for the scope concerns is to slice the project in three “levels”: The lower level is the amount of work I should aim for to get a passing grade if everything goes wrong, level three is the best case scenario. What I have so far is:
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The radio binary protocol is fully designed and can be demonstrated in a demo environment, the data bus’s software is able to collect data from different payloads and forward them to the transmission software.
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The radio link is complete and can be demonstrated on short-to-mid-range distances, the flight software handles the whole data chain (fetches from payloads and transmits through binary radio protocol).
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The data bus and radio link prototype is built and can be flown, multiple demonstration payloads are built and can be connected to the bus, a ground-side application can decode packets in real time (command-line or GUI). If funding is sufficient, a demo mission is launched.