Engineering Commons^™

Nanosatellite Launch Data-Logger (Sync), Christopher Martin Gerdom

Master's Theses

CubeSat designers are increasingly looking to incorporate delicate structures and optics into their payloads. These delicate payloads, however, may not survive the required absolute-worst-case launch vibration testing needed for flight certification. To help address this problem, and to better match testing conditions to real-world launch environments, this thesis introduces Sync, a compact 1/4U CubeSat payload designed to collect data on the vibrations and thermal environments CubeSats experience inside a deployer on the way to orbit. This data can be used to better understand the launch environment for different vehicles, and help develop new, more realistic testing guidelines that could enable …