Autonomous Rapidly Reusable Atmospheric Sampler (ARRAS)

Description: The ARRAS project aims to address the challenges listed above by exploring the feasibility of a cost-effective, autonomous, and reusable solution for remote atmospheric sampling. Designing and testing a prototype will provide a physical system to analyze and assess the concept's performance. This will be done in two phases, the design/modeling phase and the full-scale prototyping / analysis phase. The team is not responsible for the design or methods of any scientific data collection system. The team will only be responsible for verifying that the system can carry a 1 kg dummy payload.

During the design phase, which will occur during the first semester, a minimum viable product (described below) will be designed, modeled, and tested. Robust models will be derived and guide the design process. Designs and their respective models must be tested through scale prototyping and experiments, i.e. a testbed of our design meant for feasibility testing of the minimum viable product. The results of these experiments will aid in reducing the design space of the system. This process will be rigorously documented in writing and will be repeated until the design converges to a viable solution.Ìý

Along with the design, modeling, and testing, subsystem components will be developed during this phase. This includes trades for different designs for a power system, housing system, release/retraction system, and a thermal system to heat the balloon. The trade the team is currently working on is determining how the system will be heated. The current options are an on-ground heating system that heats the balloon prior to the flight, and an on-board heating system that would heat the system throughout the flight. The result of this trade will affect how the system is powered (tether power line or on ground power). This phase will deliver a design that can be used to build a full-scale prototype.

Sponsor: ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Aerospace + INSTAAR

Advisor: Tyler Jones, Ben Li, Kevin Rozmiarek

PM: Chase Rupprecht

Team Roster: Thomas Dunnington, Owen Craig, Andrew Kabos