Electrical and Power Systems & Command and Data Handling

In this post, I'll be explaining what's going on in the electrical and power systems & command and data handling subsystem (EPS&CDH).

The EPS&CDH subsystem is in charge of wiring, power, and data collection for XSAS.  In essence, anything that uses electricity. 

In our last post, Clark talked about using PCB boards as placeholders for the solar panels on the experimental XSAS flight.  He also mentioned the use of accelerometers and strain gauges on these boards to monitor how the boards react when XSAS is released.  These strain gauges and accelerometers are going to record all the data measurements to a microSD card.  That’s where we come in.

This week, the members of EPS&CDH have been finalizing the list of components we need on these boards.  Recording data from a sensor like an accelerometer or a strain gauge is a process that requires many parts.  In addition, we’re trying to save as much space as possible, so some of these parts are really small.  The accelerometers we’re planning on using are 4mm x 4mm in size!

Stay tuned for a new blog post next week!

Arun Dutta

EPS&CDH Team Member