ANDROMEDA ROCKET

Who we are

We are Aristotle Space & Aeronautics Team (A.S.A.T.), the largest student aerospace team in Greece which is under the auspices of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and operates globally. Our team supports two technical projects, Aeronautics (construction and flight UAV) and Rocketry (construction and launch of high-power missiles). This year our rocketry project proceeded in designing Andromeda, a high-power rocket incorporating a deployable payload that will conduct an experiment during the rocket’s flight. The experiment will study the effects that high acceleration and altitude levels have on sickle-cell anemia blood.

Payload Experiment

As mentioned in the above, the Rocketry team decided to include a functional payload in Andromeda. The experiment’s goal is to investigate how the red blood cells (RBCs) of sickle cell anemia patients are affected during a rocket flight. Thus, the experimental setup records a whole blood sample from a sickle cell disease patient. During ascent, the Payload records hypergravity’s effect on red blood cells (RBCs). During descent, it is expected that the red blood cells' shape changes to sickles. This is due to the decrease of partial oxygen pressure in the atmospheric air due to the high altitude. The payload's mission during descent is to record this change. The Payload shall be deployable enabling the blood sample to interact with the atmospheric air during descent. In particular, the Payload is deployed from the rocket’s nosecone when apogee is achieved.

Payload PCB

For the seamless monitoring of the payload's experiment and its safe retrieval, a separate PCB got designed. Equipped with an accelerometer-gyroscope, a thermocouple for temperature measurements, and a partial oxygen concentration sensor it will provide accurate data. Additionally, as this year's payload will be deployable, the PCB includes a GPS module the positional data of which will be transmitted via a LoRa module. For storing purposes an SD card mount and two Flash memory cards are also implemented to the design. To coordinate all these parts, a Microcontroller Unit is installed in the middle of the board. Due to size restrictions, the Payload PCB follows a sandwich-like double board architecture with the communications part (top) and the sensors’ and storage part (bottom) being connected through cables. Screw terminals are used to keep the cables fixed in place, thus ensuring the seamless communication between the PCBs. This provides better EMI isolation to the RF part of the PCB.

Contact us

We do not have our documents on a public sharing system; however, if you would like to see any of our designs in more detail, we would be happy to share them with you! Send us an email at a**@gmail.com or visit our website at www.asat.gr. We would love to share our designs with the sponsorship community! A sponsorship from PCBWay would be important to helping us achieve our goals, as our entire project is funded by University grants and corporate sponsorships.