Michael Ellis
Mentors: Professors J. Mitchell and Charles Croskey
Sub-orbital sounding rocket payloads are being developed for the investigation of various particulate-associated phenomena (such as noctilucent cloud and polar mesosphere summer echo regions) in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (65-95 km). Several probes are located on the rocket for measuring different electrical properties of the atmosphere. Testing of the electronic circuits for these probes is necessary to ensure proper working order as well as for calibration purposes.
This project will focus on the design of a software program, using LabView, to test the rocket instrumentation. The program will be used to control an Agilent 33120A Function Generator for input to the rocket instrumentation. The program will also read and record from an Agilent 34970A Data Acquisition Unit that is attached to the instrumentation output. The resulting data will be saved into an ASCII file for analysis at a later time. The merit of this project is that it removes the repetitiveness from testing the rocket instrumentation and saves time as well. This program will hopefully be flexible enough to be used at a future date for instrumentation with several different specifications.