A star coronograph with propellers. Trying to see the light of extra-solar planets from your backyard.
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Project goals:
- A system of precise positioning between the Starshade drone and the telescope base station within a 3km sphere.
- Software to discern perturbations on the drone's hover and correct them in real-time.
- Passive/dynamic Starshades: experimenting several configurations and ideas for Starshades. Passive shapes that minimize star light and a dynamic starshade based on a LCD screen that would optimize in real-time the shape and position of the starshade.
Expecting a component order to start building the drone, but .... Customs!
After searching around and seeing several platforms i choose this one to start developing and modifying the drone platform:
https://github.com/alduxvm/DronePilot
mainly because they already have developed a hover software with a PID algorithm and the hardware is based on a raspberry pi/odroid.
mw-hover-controller.py -> Computer pilot commands (using a PID structure) to make a Multiwii multicopter hold a specified x,y,z coordinate.
Do you have any criticism to this choice or a better suggestion? Please comment.
Last January, Northrop Grumman released to the public, a case report in the development of the space starshade...
https://cdn.hackaday.io/files/11906509386304/Warwick_ExoPAG13.pdf
Look how it blocks light from Jupiter:
It works on the ground and has already the potential to separate light sources in globular clusters!
I am concerned that the starshade will have very large aerodynamic drag, resulting in the drone being blown around by even light winds.
Andre Esteves
TwinkleTwinkie
Lisa Taylor
Tapiwa W
James Cannan
A good point. Starting with standard and convenient hardware enables us to establish the operational conditions. Pushing that envelope will be on a next drone iteration.