FEMTOSATS: ELEGANT FLIGHT TELEMETRY PAYLOADS FOR MODEL ROCKETS

Abstract

An elegant telemetry payload, which transmits IMU, atmospheric, or light data during flight and deployment from a small model rocket, is presented. Data is received by a custom, mobile, handpointed ground station. The payload is patterned after a thumb-sized satellite, called a femtosat. Its design is optimized for ease of implementation. The femtosat system resulted from a grassroots, student peer-mentoring program developed at Brigham Young University.