ANALYSIS OF INERTIAL MEASUREMENT DATA FROM A MODEL ROCKET PAYLOAD

Abstract

As part of a student-educational experience in telemetry, beginning undergraduates build, program, and test small payloads flown in model rockets. These payloads, nicknamed “femtosats,” collect and transmit real time telemetry on the rocket’s performance. The femtosats measure the inertial motions of the model rocket, providing info to extract the flight path. The individually student-designed femtosat circuit board includes a simple inertial measurement sensor that collects acceleration data in the form of x, y, z acceleration vectors which are transmitted in real-time to a radio ground station. The focus of this paper is the collection and analysis of the data from the telemetered inertial measurement sensor and how it can be interpreted and applied in simple model rocket motion analysis.