GAPA Launch Facility

We took our Scout troop to the GAPA launch facility in northwestern Utah. The facility is reached by taking I-80 to exit 81, backtracking about a mile on a frontage road, then turning left. The site is snug up behind "Clean Harbor" which bills themselves as a waste management company.

What is GAPA?

In the late 50's the US Air Force tested surface-to-air missiles known as "Ground to Air Pilot-less Aircraft" build and designed by Boeing. Boeing built the GAPA launch site, which is now a Utah Historic SIte and on the national register of historic places. The site is on Bureau of Land Management land, although we did need special permission to camp there due to the historic status of the site.

Utah Historic Site Sign

Launch Bunker

 The site consists of a small bunker, which has been damaged by vandals (apparently someone exploded a large charge inside, blowing out the door and shattering the windows) and what remains of a launch tower: the pad and a few bolts for the towers.

Launch Pad

Tower Stanchion in Foreground

Panoramic view: there is NOTHING out here

Launching Rockets

We woke this morning to 28 degrees, a skiff of snow, and a stiff wind. We ended up scrubbing the launch but we had a nice trip anyhow!

Just a little snow

Ultimate Telemetry Platform

I have been working for the past 4 years, off and on, on building the ultimate telemetry platform for rockets and balloons. I started originally with a set of stackable Arduino shields - GPS, SD card, etc. Over the years my understanding has grown and the technology has shrunk quite a bit, to the point where I've designed what I think to be the ultimate platform.

Ultimate Telemetry Platform

The ultimate platform consists of:

1. Arduino Mega
2. Mega proto shield
3. Adafruit "Ultimate GPS" breakout
4. Adafruit microSD breakout
5. Adafruit 10 DOF IMU
6. 2m amateur "radio on a chip"
7. 3.3v power supply

I liked the Mega because of the extra size. My vision is that my local Scout troop will start a NOVA team and that the kids will throw additional experiments onto the telemetry platform, and the Mega gives me plenty of pins!

Thanks to my employer, Caliber Security Partners, I was able to stock up on supplies for the project:

Arduino Uno, Mega, and the breakout boards.

My original design focused on ballooning, but I ran into an opportunity to launch the telemetry platform via a rocket. My buddy and amateur radio "Elmer" has a high-power rocket with a payload. Perfect for the Mega!

Here's a shot of the Mega proto shield with the breakout boards:

Mega proto shield with the GPS and IMU. Radio chip and power supply will go in the empty spot on the left.

With the radio chip and power supply, there's not enough acreage for the microSD card, so I put it on the bottom!

This tangle of wires is the 3 sensors on a breadboard, tied to an Uno

Life Is Full of Opportunity

I ran into a number of issues building my platform:

• My buddy had to back out - no motor, his high power license expired, and he's out of time.
• The radio and power supply haven't arrived
• The microSD card draws too much power to use without an external power supply
• ...

So now I have an opportunity! My launch is scheduled for 11/15, and it's 11/11 today. I have to build a solution practically overnight.

Options

Launch Platform

I have an old Estes "Maxi Force" 3-motor cluster rocket that I can launch with. It wasn't made for payloads, so I'm taking a bit of a risk here but at this point I am going to go for it. The nose cone is just exactly wide enough to fit an Arduino Uno:

It's this, or we launch with a kite (and the kite's not all that exciting, especially since we're launching rockets the boys built as part of Space Exploration merit badge).

Telemetry Package

I have a few options on the telemetry side:

• Powered Arduino sd shield, with is big and bulky
• Strip out the GPS and send up the microSD shield and the IMU on an Uno
• Do the same, but use a PC board and solder on a nano

The next few hours will be telling, as I hook the Nano up to the breadboard to see if it can handle everything. I have a number of 3.3v batteries from various cell phones, so I think I can actually use them to power the microSD card. If the nano idea pans out, I just need to find enough power to bring up the Nano and the sensors.