Ground Systems
"And wow! Hey! What's this thing coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding word like... ow... ound... round... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground! I wonder if it will be friends with me?" -- An unexpectedly descending whale, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.
Overview
The Ground Systems Team designs and implements all of the ground-based rocket deployment and support equipment. There is no email discussion list for the ground support team at this time, but discussions frequently occur on the software list.
We have a Launch Control Module (LCM): which houses the flight controllers and a bunch of Linux-based computers. We also have a computer-controlled Launch Tower (LT) which launches the rocket remotely. Using Wifi (802.11b) links, we can even separate the LCM and the LT by a few miles.
System Diagrams
- GroundConnectionsLv2 - connection diagrams for the LV2 ground system.
Base Camp
- Launch Control Module (LCM)
- Two "CostCo" car ports which we use as a workstation
Away Cell
Old Stuff
- LV1/1b Ground Support: GroundSupport
- Hardware for LV2 Emergency Uplink
- Software for LV2 emergency Uplink
- LaunchControl software.
- Launch Computer to VCR hardware link