Team Name: Silicon Streakers
Team Members: Catherine Witt, Alec Fremier, Marten Kendall, Brian Medendorp, Berkeley Taneja, Allison Roney
Product Name: TARDES - Thorough, Autonomous, RF, Day-in-the-life, Electrical-Ground-Support-Equipment, System
Our product originates from Tiger Innovations Inc who is requesting TARDES for their SOARS program. SOARS is a confidential DARPA program that includes the development of a fully functional PicoSat. Tiger Innovations Inc’s current user problem is their lack of testing infrastructure to characterize PicoSat day-in-the-life operations before deployment. Their current testing procedure is inefficient and inadequate, for they are unable to test various systems and scenarios that could be encountered by the PicoSat upon deployment. Additionally, this testing procedure is meticulously manual and time consuming. TARDES is an automated, integrated testing environment to monitor key electrical parameters under numerous simulated scenarios. TARDES includes a testing chamber that simulates space environments and is controlled by an electrical ground support equipment (EGSE). The EGSE logs information back through a graphical user interface (GUI) which provides simplicity for the user. TARDES provides an ability to simulate specific communication and lighting conditions for both normal and emergency modes of operation. TARDES allows the user to easily develop power usage and lifetime profiles for an operational PicoSat. TARDES’s automation reduces excessive man hours and increases the number of potential testing scenarios. Most importantly, TARDES has a simple user interface that provides an improved testing experience. Our industry sponsor, Tiger Innovations Inc, will benefit most from the TARDES design. Although this product is specifically designed for their SOARS program, it can be adapted to work with other similar PicoSats. This ability for adaptation also makes TARDES appealing for other PicoSat designers if Tiger Innovations Inc chooses to market TARDES.