This was funded through the WV Space grant consortium (WV-SGC) and 5 schools in the state of West Virginia were participating to build a payload to fly as a part the NASA Rocksat program. I joined the team after the design phase to help implement the WVU experiment, which was focused on measure electric fields during flight.
The WVU group working on the project had proposed to build a Langmuir probe and wave measurement device similar to what was flown in MAVEN. The minimum success criteria had been set to measure the electron density $n_e$ with a minimum rate of 1 Hz.
Having had some experience with FPGA and embeded programming. I took on the task of implementing the software needed for the experiment. We chose a Redpitaya STEMLab 125-14 for the final design.
I was able to successfully implement all three of these goals using a Matlab Simulink and Xilinx. The design is shown below,
Find a good image here to show the matlab diagram
This was then integrated with a modified FPGA firmware such that antenna extension/retraction and all experiments can be controlled using inputs from a c/python program running on the Redpitaya OS. The final binary FPGA image and the experiment controller programs can be found here
Testing and launch went well. The payload was recovered and most parts of the experiment worked as expected. The team went on to analyse the Langmuir probe data and it was presented in AGU 2024 and 2025 by Dylan. The RF experiment had collected data but no significant signals were identified. We concluded this was probably due to insufficient amplification on the RF pre-amp.
For me this was a great learning experience to polish up my experimental skills and contribute to a project and actually use an FPGA for science !
]]>After reading up online about solar eclipse observation, it was clear to me that a few things had to be done before-hand in order to prepare for this event. Finding a location to observe and some suitable equipment was at the top of my to-do list. I had a tripod and my Nikon DSLR, however a decent solar filter was one of the main components I was missing. I was able to find some online but unfortunately the timing was two tight and non of them shipped directly to Sri Lanka. Without the filters this whole thing was just another dream. I turned to a couple of my friends who were out side of Sri Lanka to try to see if I could ask one of them to post it to me and Pamitha who had recently migrated to Australia for his studies agreed to re-post it to me. Within two days my order was processed and it was a 2 week wait till I finally got the filters.
The only remaining major decision was the location of observation. The eclipse was visible to the entire country to varying degrees. Colombo was on the partial eclipse zone with a maximum of 88% covering of the Solar disk. However northern parts of Sri Lanka (Jaffna and Trincomalee) was in the annular eclipse zone. Over the next few days I convinced my self saying “Why not go there and get the full experience. Its just 400 km not the end of the world right….” After considering my options I was able to convince my parents to agree to a 5 day trip to Jaffna giving us the needed time to visit Jaffna and also to get to be there just in time there for the eclipse.
On the 23rd of December we left home packed for a 5 day trip our first stop was at Sigiriya. The next day we reached Jaffna and we were also able to scout out a suitable location. After a good nights sleep I spent the better part of the Christmas day trying out suitable settings. We were able to visit a couple of key attractions in Jaffna including the Fort and the Nallur Temple.
Finally a clear sky! this was the first thing that came to mind. December 26th early morning after a quick breakfast, packed with all the gear we set out on the uneven roads of Ariyalai, to the spot where we had checked out the previous day. Farmers and village fork were starting there day and were going about there business as usual.
We parked nearby and settled on the location without any incident. At 0809 h we witnessed the initial contact and the next three hours were filled with excitement and a sense of accomplishment. The photos turned out to be great despite a few mistakes in the timing.
At the end of the day the whole experience was unforgettable. It was totally worth driving 400 km :)
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