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PSAS Autonomous Recovery System PSAS plans to utilize an autonomous recovery system for its future launch vehicles. It will consist of a parafoil and controller which will steer booster stages and payloads back to a pre-determined point for safety and easy recovery. The controller will monitor various environmental and dynamic variables, as well as an electronic compass and a GPS module. The initial phase of the project involves the design and construction of a prototype referred to as ARS1, for Autonomous Recovery System No. 1. ARS1 will serve as a development system to test various sensor and controller schemes. It will be fully operational under manual remote control only, and the constraints on the controller of size, shape, and weight will be minimized to allow the testing of different servo devices, and the prototyping of different electronic components. ARS1 will be designed with the framework in place to gradually add complexity to hardware and firmware until the point is reached where it is under complete autonomous control. At that time we will focus our efforts on a redesign to package the electronics and mechanical components to be smaller, lighter, and appropriate for deploying from LV2. The ARS project is currently on hold - we simply don't have the people or resources to pursue this project. If you're interested in collaborating with us on this project, please let us know! |
