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[Music]
okay we probably all had our fair share
of experiments right maybe technical
experience with some device maybe um
some cooking experience or other
substances
whatever
um dying notes always experimental and
um yeah but all those experiments have
taken place in standard atmosphere of
course and maybe with no acceleration
just being there on Earth but uh what if
uh you could change that you know uh
next speakers Martin and Jean working as
computer scientists and mechanical
electrical engineers at the German
Aerospace Center DLR um they will show
us how to undertake experiments under
microgravity conditions or with the
extreme acceleration of hypersonic
Rockets please give a warm welcome to
Martin and
jeanclaude
[Applause]
thank you very much thank you very much
um hi I'm Martin this is uh John car hi
and uh yeah we like to present to you
bits and bites in micro garity insights
into the Harden software of sounding
Rockets um yeah so let's uh start a
little bit about the DLR in general so
the German Aerospace Center DLR um is a
research facility in Germany one of the
biggest with with approximately 10,000
employees um across 58 institutes and
facilities at 30 sides as you can see
here in the picture on the right side
and um we work in one Institute in DLR
and in one Department there um called
moraba um which is basically in English
a mobile rocket base um and this is um
yeah the base for the rocket base is in
Oben Hoven near Munich um which is on
the bottom right on the map um and
currently we are on the bottom top as
you can see um yeah this is DLR in
general so but what is moraba um
doing so what basically what we are
doing is we develop build and fly
customized sounding Rockets um this
means we customize sounding Rockets um
for um yeah institutional research in
within DLR for example Material Science
um but also for industrial Partners um
and we customize rockets for their
experiments and their
payloads um and yeah in addition we also
do some balloon
experiments um
yeah y so and this especially means that
we build rocket Vehicles payload system
support systems and ground support
systems um some facts about moraba so
since like 52 55 years uh we had 550
plus uh launchers with 30 different
vehicles uh the heaviest of them uh
weighed about uh 7 metric tons um and
they started from about 20 launch sides
on Earth so everywhere on Earth
basically and yeah we cover research
fields from astronomy uh aeronomy micro
gravity
hypersonics um there's also student
programs for student education so if
you're a student you can also build
rockets and fly them at moraba or in
together with moraba actually um and we
also do technical demonstrations and
yeah of course security and defense
related research is also
involved um yeah so the first question
here is and this is basically the
outline of the presentation is what is
required um to fly a sounding rocket or
to operative uh sounding rocket and the
uh yeah it all starts with uh with
Mission management and range
coordination and then we go over to
electrical and mechanical manufacturing
as well as assembly integration and test
and from there on we have a full rocket
and uh we can talk about the lunch
campaign itself and then of course we
have postflight analysis
um uh for scientists and for ourselves
right yes um yeah so much for the
outline
uh so when we start a new campaign or a
new Mission basically um we first talk
with our stakeholders and partners um
about the mission profile in general and
and basically we cover um yeah two
actually three types of of um flight
profiles and you can see in the uh in
the picture on the right this is um on
the first firstly it's Hypersonic flight
so you can see it's a a rather
um uh flight there um because basically
there the interest is in
speed um and the effects and uh yeah and
then we have somewhere in between the
student program um which is similar to
the actual um atmospheric physics and um
microgravity research which which is
basically um the top uh trajectory which
is really high and we have um there we
have um yeah micro gravity basically for
about 6 minutes um yeah these are the
two types Hypersonic flight and micro
gravity uh flights with
rockets
um so once we've talked with our
partners about um the mission profile in
general and what we wanted to cover what
we wanted to do um yeah we can go to the
vehicle selection so there is a whole
set of um vehicles um that's basically a
combination of different Motors or solid
rocket Motors mostly um and then of
course the payload which is um a little
bit different every time when we fly a
rocket so um from left to right you
basically have small apog small rocket
and to the right you have a orbital
rocket uh which is in general POS um
yeah able to fly into orbit with a small
payload um yeah once we've selected the
vehicle for the mission profile uh we uh
have to select a proper site for the
flight in general and what you can see
here is basically all the um locations
we have launched a rocket from um the
yellow locations here are the locations
that are used frequently um these are
kiruna in Sweden and andess in Norway um
then also schitz Norway and um yeah
there's one side in Brazil and and one
side in
Australia so um from here on we now have
a whole plan we now know what we wanted
to do and now it's time to talk a little
bit about how to build the the rocket in
in general and I think that's the first
time we switch yes um
so the rocket itself is uh divided into
different uh sections uh first we have
to launch segment uh on the left um the
launch services are responsible for the
aerodynamics for the
trajectory um and for the decision on
which engine we use then we have the
mechanical flight systems they do almost
every structural thing like uh the the
the hull the fins the nose cone The Bu
heads insights everything we need um but
they do also the
recovery uh for the parachute it's uh we
come back to that later uh then we have
the data handling that's where we from
um data handling is what it says um the
experiment sends uh data from the inside
the payload and we transmit it and
distribute It On The Ground um then we
have control and
instrumentation um some flights
especially the microgravity flights they
have an cold gas Thruster system to um
reduce movement during the micro G phase
and they're responsible for that and
then we have the Telemetry and
tracking uh station they track the
rocket during the flight with an antenna
and receive the Telemetry or send the
telecommand if
necessary so that's the all the
Departments and you can see um what a
rocket can look like this is the vsb 30
vehicle um from left to right you have
the booster where's S31 and then the um
second stage and then you have the
payload
and uh the three modules on top is
um the
recovery system and the motor
adapter then we have the rate control
system and the attitude control system
that's where the cold gas thrusters are
and then the service module of course
where everything uh comes
together um yeah and since we're from
the data handling group we are
responsible for the service module
and the service module is kind of
modular um so the experiment says oh we
need that data rate and um we like to
have so many um Power connections and we
say okay we can do that for you and we
also have the batteries
and then the um the experiment says okay
we have like for example 10 megabits of
data and we like to um transmit it to
ground and then we decide how to do it
so the experiments are
happy
um this is a explosion view it's a
little bit crowded but uh just short um
this is our largest service module we
can offer um you can decide on the
inertial measurement unit depending on
your trajectory if you need very
Precision or not um then on the left we
have the ebox this is the brain from the
service module there comes everything
together and on the right we have some
GPS receivers and then the bottom the
Telemetry uh transmitters or telecommand
receivers and all of that you can see or
most of that is uh built in-house uh
mechanics pcbs wire ring
harness yes and talking about the brain
from the service module the ebox
has the multifunction card inside where
it's basically the CPU where everything
runs together and Martin will tell you
something some details about the
mfc2 yeah um yeah talking about the the
brain of the system um having the
multifunction car second generation here
so this is the um MFC 2G as we call it
um it basically is a a processor a dual
core black fin
561 um with 500 MHz um and also an fpga
Cyclone 3 um you can see that it only
has 64 megabytes of SD ram and 2
megabytes of d r so this Hardware is
about 10 years old um and currently yeah
actually this year or in two or 3 weeks
we start to design the Next Generation
Um um yeah a b computer or module
service module actually the whole
service module this also includes the
redesign and new design of of these uh
uh circuit
cards um but coming back to the current
generation we have um currently we have
the uh we can support 16 uh um 4 to2 um
serial ports and rs uh 4 to four um
eight times then we have two canbas um
we have an AET 100 uh a 10 to 100 Bas T
um
possibility as a downl from the
experiments um then we have two gsmk
modems for the
Telemetry um inside so that we can send
the data during flight um which is
coming basically from the experiments
via serial um yeah so the Next
Generation basically will use mostly or
this is our idea will'll use mostly
ethernet of course um going a little bit
more into the modern area here
um nevertheless um we also have an fpga
which does a lot of um yeah work in the
background um for example um yeah
evaluating flags and stuff um yeah so
that the CPU does not have to deal with
it right so um yeah we also have an um
SD card on board here a mass storage
device um that is basically for backup
um meaning if we are not able to receive
data via Telemetry for whatever reason
um we also have a backup on an SD card
from the experiments from all the data
are sent to the
ground yeah so this is basically the
multifunction card here um and once
we've designed or finished the uh
service
module uh we can go over to uh the whole
testing procedure so we have the service
module and then we have also the module
it's from the experimenters and then we
have to test all of this on the ground
before flight of
course um oh maybe a little bit to
software sorry let me go go back again
um just about the software here so the
um black fin and the is usually
programmed in C++ and assembler of
course and then we have the Cyclone
processor which is usually programmed uh
using um
vhdl for
fpga I just want to mention that here um
yeah
so if we then assembled the service
module and the experiments are ready and
also the mechanical structure is ready
um for example the fins that are they
also made inhouse we have to um test the
whole uh
rocket um on ground and uh one of the
first tests we do is basically the air
bearing test um for example if you have
a cold gas Thruster system that controls
the rocket in space
um we have to make sure that our
software pushes the rocket into the
right direction right it it's a little
bit difficult if you do it wrong in
space yeah that's too late so you have
to check firstly on ground if if all the
thrusters work in the correct direction
and yeah this is a little video here
that shows that so you can see this is
basically lifted by air pressure the
whole
structure um and yeah the rocket is
currently flying basically in simulation
mode and it's yeah moving within the
hall and we can check then okay it's
yeah going into the right direction it's
doing what it's supposed to
do
um then also included in this um bench
test is um yeah testing if everything is
um connected together if every signal is
coming from the experiment to the rocket
to service module if everything goes to
the um ground then we also look into the
countdown phase um so how we supposed to
start up the rocket when we should turn
on the batteries for example
um uh and stuff like that and uh yeah
after all of this we do a final bench
test which is basically uh the
certificate like it's working like
intended like in the plan right um
nevertheless um we also do some
environmental testing on the rocket so
of course it's a sounding rocket boosted
by solid rocket boosters so you have a
lot of G on the rocket and uh so we do
some um Shaker tests uh which involve um
sign sweeps on all three axes of the
rocket um that basically means um yeah
if you basically Build Together the
rocket then you have some sensors on it
and then you do um a frequency measure
over some um specified frequencies
there's a standard for that I'm a
computer scientist uh you know it a
little bit better I guess
um but uh basically what you do you do a
sweep then you shake the rocket and then
you can take another spectrum and if it
it it looks different from the first
time you know something is loose inside
maybe a screw and then you have to take
it apart and see what is wrong um then
we also do a sent of gravity check so
that the rocket is stable in Flight we
do moments of inertial measurement and
sometimes thermal vacuum
testing well um and if all this works
out um we basically have a completed
rocket um for example some examples here
on the side uh different vehicles with
different payloads uh just to see how it
could look
like
um yeah so this is then the point where
we basically have a completed rocket in
over noen Germany and then we have to go
to the launch site right and it's called
mobile rocket base which basically means
we take everything thing we have and
that's a lot of stuff like the whole
Telemetry station the launcher rack um
yeah everything you need um yeah to
maintain and to fly a rocket and we take
it to the place where we want to launch
the rocket and we build up the whole
mobile infrastructure and this also
includes um the electrical ground
support equipment or EGS as we call it
and this is basically on this little
sketch here it's it's the um the things
on the right side so you have a the
rocket on the left with the service
module and the experiments and then you
have a serial connector or one more than
one serial connector or othernet um
going to the service module interface R
which is basically housed next to the
rocket and from there we have aset or
fiber or aset wire fiber to the data
switching Center which is basically also
a software again written in currently in
C++ plus um that is Distributing all the
data so taking the data streams
selecting the data streams and um
pushing it to the correct experiments or
to the scientists and their monitoring
stations because we only push the data
through and they have their own
monitoring system where they can do
whatever they like with their data
because that's so different every time
it's not yeah we but we also have of
course housekeeping of our own system
like temperatures and um
what is also involved like position and
stuff like yeah gyroscopes accelerator
yeah you name it um and then of course
we have an AET and fiber also coming
into our data uh switching system so you
have the left side to the service model
interface Rec which is basically the
connection while the rocket is on ground
and then you have the tele ministration
which feed the data in when the rocket
is in
flight so this is also then build up on
ground and uh in parallel basically we
also assemble the whole rocket together
again um and uh yeah prepared for launch
for example the the launch Services then
also attaches the motor um and the
boosters and then it's uh that's your
part right yeah excuse me um yeah as you
can see on the left uh
we um put the all models mod together
check that every screw is
tied check that there are no loose Parts
no loose cables we tighten everything
it's sometimes a little bit tedious but
it's uh necessary and then when it's all
done uh we have the so-called roll out
as you can see in the right
picture um where the complete vehicle uh
is rolled out to the launching
site
um at the launching site side as you can
see here um the rocket will be slided
onto the beam and then all the
electrical connections are done they are
called
umbilicals um they need to be rigged in
some special way so after lift off they
get pulled away from the rocket so the
connectors and cables either won't fly
with the rocket which is bad and also
don't hit the fins uh which is also bad
so um you need to have uh you need to
take special care but then it looks uh
something like that and on the right
picture you can see the
lifted uh rocket on the
launcher um it's inside a building and
then the building opens and the rocket
goes
outside um and ready for
launch
um then for example we have here U more
details on the um flight trajectory this
is a mcro gravity FL it's a little bit
uh thin on the Beamer but hey um you
have the launch on the left
side um where the booster is ignited uh
then you have the after the booster is
uh burned out and it's gone uh we ignite
the second stage and after the second
stage uh burnt out we separate the
payload so there are no it's just a
payload floating in space and then
depending on the wait of course we have
like 5 to 10 minutes microgravity where
the experiments will
happen and after the experiment F phase
since we're flying a
parabola um the payload is spun up to um
reduce uh to induce drag on the system
on the atmosphere so it will slow down
um and after a
couple meters or seconds or minutes or
whatever um we start a parachute um
phase we have two parachutes a drug
shoot and a main shoot so the vehicle
gets slower every time and on the
last the last thing is the rocket will
smoothly land on the ground and since
this is a little bit abstract um we
prepared a video for
you and this is the launch of Mao 5 it's
a
microgravity um research for Material
Science
and yes enjoy the
flight
get
[Music]
now this is from an inside of the
[Music]
launcher turn our
St second
St
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
so this
is yeah that was just a sound from the
ground
M and now the second stage burned
out and it flies a little bit
further and then we Des spin it with a
yyo system and separate the payload and
now you have 5 minutes micro G in 250
kilm
EP so that that was the whole start
right it takes like no cut yeah no cut
like 20 seconds to space
yeah
and then after the re-entry uh
experiment phase we have the re-entry
phase sorry maybe it's a little bit uh
not so good it's the Earth in the
background here and the payload in front
and now you can hear the atmosphere
coming back in a second so this is the
cold Gast Ruster I think trying to keep
it stable and now you hear the Little
Tone this is the
atmospher and it's coming
fast
so the re-entry phase takes a little
longer of course but then you have the
parachute phase and if if everything
wents well the landing will look like
[Music]
this and there you can see the parachute
falling down
yes and then after the successful flight
we recover everything with the
helicopter you can see the rocket
stucking in the ground so very nice
picture and yes after we recovered the
uh payload uh we try to
um re use everything so we have rockets
that have flown like 10 times and we're
using them until they're mechanically
unusable so yes and then the complete
cycle starts again new experiments new
vehicle new launch
campaign thank you very much for your
attention
thanks thank you very much Martin and
Jal
um do we have questions yes we have PL
plenty of time for some questions um
over there third row with the
hat uh sorry can you repeat there's
there's some no no no wait wait there
there's a microphone coming around what
there's already one ah hi what's the
mass of the
payload uh the mass of the payload
depends on the vehicle um it's between
uh 100 and 500 kog I
guess over
there hello sorry if this is a stupid
question but I don't think I got it why
are they called sounding
Rockets um good question it's a good
question
um I'm not sure if I can answer it
correctly um because we don't often use
the English terms but it's
um since the the rocket is flying a
parabola and not it's not going into
orbit it's just shortly in the
atmosphere and sorry I'm cannot explain
it correct the correct term why it's
called sounding rocket um it's just the
English term for in German H
for which is basically High research
rocket or highflying research rocket but
yeah it's just a technical term I guess
sounding something like a probing
maybe so it's a we're probing the
atmosphere sorry some noding here in the
audience hi
hi you should probably stand up we have
a bit of interference here hi
okay how many times that you're doing
the testing find something that is so
bad that you have to stop everything and
start how many times find these errors
um sorry we cannot understand you do to
the microphone maybe you have a second
microphone it's a it's a technical
problem it's not got nothing to do with
the microphone you can come over and
come over here maybe uh if you've got a
question queue up here at on the side of
the stage so uh we yeah yeah how many
times when you're doing the testing you
find something that it's so bad wrong
that you have to stop the whole mission
let's call it right how many times the
testing are um never because we uh we
have to fly the mission so we do
everything to do it
so maybe sometimes they're overtime but
all of the time are working so H usually
you if there's a problem of course um
usually you yeah shift the the schedule
a bit but uh yeah yeah not flying I
don't know no not usually never yeah
yeah and there are also not that many
problems because they are very proven
systems and they fly all the time and
most of the time everything goes right
yeah so we tend to do things similar in
every mission in every campaign the
structural um mechanical uh parts of the
rocket are always built in a similar way
or in the same way standardized way so
also electronic software we to use the
Heritage all right next questions over
there with the green shirt um I think I
heard you say use you use uh solid uh
fuel yes uh what is it made of and why
are you using solid stuff cuz I think I
learned that most Rockets use uh liquid
fuel or like mixing hydrogen and um
oxygen yeah that's right um the the
thing is uh liquid Rockets are very
complicated to build and to use and also
hybrid Rockets are a thing but not very
common
and solid uh Rocket motors have the
great thing that they're very simple to
use because you just have to just have
to ignite them and they're doing their
job uh there's of course more involved
into that but you don't have to fuel the
tanks you don't have to have some pumps
and stuff so it's
just more easy to use also um solid
rocket uh boosters usually have a higher
I think impulse and frost on the
ground um
yeah coming back to that how many G's do
you pull when you're going going
up um with the liquid you can control
that but the solid you can't so I'm
wondering no we can't um it depends on
the vehicle of course uh
between 10 or
20 so it's a
very um tough
ride people up you wouldn't be sending
people up okay no no people only
experiments uh so you mentioned that you
were going to redesign the control
system uh for those Rockets or upgraded
at least to modern technology um also
you mentioned that uh currently it's
programmed in
C++ uh was it just is it going to stay
C++ or are you going to migr to
something like I don't know rust or
something like that uh actually we are
thinking about uh rust for for example
because of um yeah the um paradigma in
the in the language um but the problem
here is also the the Manpower and the
people who understand this new language
and uh yeah people with knowledge are
limited kind
of limited resource and um yeah but
currently the C++ is just because of the
um yeah real time OS that is running on
the black processor
so yeah all right there are still more
questions please come up to the
microphone uh so more about the software
stack uh what is uh the architecture of
the black processor and like what kind
of operating systems and what kind of
libraries are you using there any open
source
stuff um how is it called it's an open
source real time lenos Ros yeah it's
called Ros um in an older
version but but uh the the black fin
processor is basically a DSP um a signal
processor but it's it's running
basically Ros be on the CPU so this is
the assembler part so
yeah hi again uh do you do any PreFlight
or inflight huging pen testing security
test radio something well not in flight
because it's like yeah it should work in
flight so I think there's scientists are
not happy if you do some pen testing in
between they don't get any data back but
um yeah of course we we Thrive to do
that but um yeah same problem here
people and
resources hi so in the overview slide uh
you did I get it right that you're
developing
also go to the
sorry the microphone went off again yeah
uh yeah did get did I get it right that
you're also developing an orbital rocket
like how does it differ from what you
currently have uh yes there's the it's
Corporation with the Brazilian space
agency and uh it's a solid rocket
orbital
vehicle but it's still under development
so stay
tuned
uh one more question I saw on the video
that the second stage separated from the
payload and like what's the point of
that it's uh not going to like the
payload doesn't have any engine so
you're not taking advantage of like the
separating of them or is there another
reason um let me shortly think about
that um we separate the engine from the
payload um to have the center of gravity
Within in the payload so you don't have
any levers pushing on you of course also
the the mass is reduced so we don't need
that much cold gas and the cold gas
thrusters um and sometimes the solid
rocket uh motors have a little bit fuel
residue inside that maybe gas out and
destroy the quality of micro gravity so
you want to get rid of that and also we
don't
uh need the the weight on the motor on
the parachute
and yeah this is maybe also something we
didn't mention um so the micro gravity
they talk on in in in the ISS for
example if they say it's micro gravity
it's um yeah it's not so so clean
gravity because it's it's a working
machine with people in it and the rocket
has a really yeah really it's close to
zero
basically it's a small machine with less
vibration
and we have very high quity of micity so
you want to get rid of every disturbance
around but sometimes the motor keeps
attached I think it depends yeah it
depends all right last question
please hi hi again did you have any
attack in flight or pre-flight on the
rockets that you can tell us about real
ones not that I know about thank you all
right thank you very much give it up
again for Martin and Chan thank you very
much thank you very much for that
awesome
[Applause]
[Music]
talk