A High Altitude Inflatable -Winged Aircraft

Baseline Inflatable Glider Balloon Launch Unmanned Experiment

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Core Team
Student team leaders
Justin Kearns, Overall Team and Mechanical Engineering Technical Lead

Mike Carter, Project Manager

Aaron Welch, Electrical Engineering Technical Lead

Advisors
Dr. Suzanne Weaver Smith, Principal Investigator and System Integration Dr. Jamey Jacob, Aeronautics Dr. William Smith, Communications and Power Dr. James Lumpp, Flight Control and Power

Sponsors
National Space Grant Consortium via Kentucky Space Grant Consortium

NASA EPSCOR
ILC Dover, Inc. UK VP of Research
BIG BLUE Satellite Program

The General Plan

Phase 1 and 2: 1.5 hour ascent at a constant rate Phase 2 begins prior to balloon release Phase 3: 2.5 hour descent

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Motivations
Low density (low Re) aircraft - High altitude defense - Marscraft To overcome this challenge: larger wing span Problem: costly to launch such large structures Solution: Inflatable wings

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

ILC Dover
Design and development of softgoods products for both government and industry Experienced NASA contractor
spacesuit design flexible space structures

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

CU Balloon Launch
Edge of Space Sciences (EOSS)
a Colorado based non-profit organization that explores frontiers in amateur radio and high altitude ballooning

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Project Time-Line
October 2002 - core team formed, grant awarded, ILC Dover, Inc. visit November 2002 - balloon launch in Colorado December 2002 - wing design completed, control system design completed and tested January 2003 - NASA Langley, Wallops Island, UAT & NASA Marshall visits February 2003 - Final verification tests March 2003 - Critical Design Review, 1st Flight Readiness Review, 1st BIG BLUE Satellite launch May 2003 2nd Flight Readiness Review, 2nd BIG BLUE Satellite launch August 2003 - flight data reduction and analysis
BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Balloon Launch Basics

Density and pressure drop exponentially
30 km: ralt=rsl/60, Palt=Psl/100

Temperature drops linearly in the troposphere, then stabilizes in the stratosphere until increasing again

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

High Altitude Conditions

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Team Organization
Wing Design Flight Control I Flight Control II Wing Deployment

Data Acquisition

RF/Digital Communications

Power

Autopilot Electronics

Structural / Integration

Launch / Recovery

Outreach

Risk Mitigation

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Wing Design (X-foil)

Aerodynamic analysis
X-Foil software
Conduct analysis under: Low Reynolds number 50,000 ~ 200,000

Various angles of attack

Lift and Drag coefficients obtained determine performance Pressure distribution may then be established

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Wing Design (Airfoil Selection)

Five different airfoils were selected based on efficiency of airfoils under low-Reynolds number conditions and analyzed using X-foil. (dae11, dae31, e387, e398 and s7012). After these were examined by ILC Dover, airfoil e398 was selected based on manufacturability.
BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Wing Design (ANSYS)

Finite element analysis
ANSYS 6.1 software
Bumpy airfoil coordinates were provided by ILC Pressure distributions obtained from X-Foil were applied on the top and bottom surfaces Wing material modeled as cured Static and Modal analyses were performed

Objective was to determine the maximum stress to define the number of composite layers

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Wing Design (Prototype)

UK Rapid-Prototyping lab created (using stereo-lithography) the two types of wing test sections for the selected airfoil
BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Wing Design (Test setup)

Prototypes will then be tested in the UK low-turbulence wind tunnel Tunnel test section: 24 x 24 cross section and 48 length 50-hp motor drives 50 m/s with free-stream turbulence levels less than 1/2% additional wind-tunnel with smaller test section (8 x 16) and lower velocity (35 m/s) is also available

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Wing Design (Verification)

X-foil verification for other airfoils (e387 and s7012) was first accomplished using wind tunnel test data available from UIUC
UIUC conducts low-speed airfoil testing (data found at http://www.aae.uiuc.edu/mselig/uiuc_lsat.html )

Wind tunnel tests of our smooth e398 airfoil will be compared to X-foil data to verify our testing process Wind-tunnel tests of the bumpy airfoil will then be conducted and compared to the ideal section One question to be resolved is loss at the trailing edge
BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Flight Control I
Who? Fall 2002 ME 412 group Autonomous Flight Control via a closed loop feedback control system
Information System: GPS and Gyroscopic Feedback

Microprocessor Controller to Control Attitude and Flight Path Low altitude verification tests via rigid wing glider

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Flight Control I
Autonomous flight capability: MP1100 control system
central microprocessor integrates accelerometers, gyroscopes, an altimeter, a pitot tube, and GPS components allow capability of airspeed hold, altitude hold, turn coordination, and GPS navigation

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Flight Control I
Control System Components
Altimeter Gyros & Accelerometers GPS

Rx Receiver

Control System Microprocessor

Speed (Pitot Tube)

Servo Motors Tx Rc Controller Speed Controller Control Surfaces Motor & Prop

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Flight Control I
MP1100 offers versatile programming options
numerous configurations accessible through onboard flash memory

Capable of multi-routine program loops Emergency or failsafe routines PID loops and adjustable gains

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Flight Control II
Who? Spring 2003 ME 412 group Low altitude Micropilot testing Integrating UK Autopilot into BIG BLUE aircraft UK Autopilot low altitude testing Meet payload constraints (power and weight)

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Wing Deployment
Who? Spring 2003 ME 412 group Inflatable tube deployment simulation
Analytically predicts tube deployment sequence

Plenum design and inflation method

Meet payload constraints (power and weight)

Thermal vacuum chamber verification tests

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Wing Deployment
Vacuum chamber testing to explore expansion methods

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Data Acquisition
Who? Spring 2003 ME 412 group Instrumentation and data acquisition
Cameras Environmental condition measurements Flight performance

Meet payload constraints (power and weight) Equipment calibration

Ground testing

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

RF/Digital Communications
Who? Spring 2003 EE 499 group Communication of control signals and data; APRS/GPS System interface Verification tests
Temperature
Moisture

Meet payload constraints (power and weight)

Integration and testing

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Power
Who? Spring 2003 EE 499 group

Verification, temperature tests

Develop power budget set constraints for other subsystems Integrated effort with inflation and data acquisition

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Flight Control Sensors/Programming

Who? Spring 2003 EE 587 group Design, build autopilot based on MicroPilot design
AHRS unit: gyros and sensors for roll, pitch, yaw heading Crossbow is a possible purchase

GPS certification to top speeds above 60k feet AHRS, APRS, GPS interface

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Structural/Integration
Who? Spring 2003 ME 380 group Planform design
Fuselage Wing mounting Internal mounting hardware and orientation, abort parachute Manipulate component placement for optimal C.G. Overall tracking of payload weight budget Tail control surfaces

Meet payload constraints

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Launch/Recovery
Volunteer opportunities: Critical Design Reviewers Flight Readiness / Safety Reviews UK BIG BLUE website design Tracking interface to watch flights
Lat/Long coordinates Altitude data packets Live camera feed

www.findu.com
BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Risk Mitigation
Volunteer opportunity Risk identification Likelihood and severity ranking of risks Development of solutions and verification tests in order to alleviate these risks Examples:
Premature rigidization of wings Batteries die early

Transceiver malfunctions as a result of low temperatures

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Outreach
Volunteer opportunity:

BIG BLUE t-shirts

E-Day demonstrations and exhibit booth Talks to K-12 schools; science fun days, etc.

BIG BLUE Satellite Program

Overall Objectives
Fall 2002
Flight control verification
Design and build rigid wing glider Test at low altitude

Inflated wing design completed

Spring 2003
Establish remaining subsystem teams Design and build high altitude system Verification testing

Balloon launch (late March early May 2003)

Data reduction and analysis through August 2003

BIG BLUE Satellite Program