The Raspberry Pi camera is attached to ESA’s YPSat and is orbiting Earth, a week after it was supposed to re-enter the atmosphere with the Ariane 6 upper stage and burn up together.
About YPSat The sleek payload was bolted onto the Ariane 6 payload adapter and was designed to record all the key stages of the rocket’s maiden flight. Designed to last just three hours, the payload was supposed to re-enter with the upper stage last Tuesday, July 9, and burn up in the atmosphere.
but, problem A combination of an Auxiliary Propulsion Unit (APU) and a failed start for the Vinci engines on the stage allowed YPSat to remain in orbit a little longer than designers had planned, even though its batteries were likely already dead.
The YPSat payload was quickly finalized: the concept was conceived based on the principle “Keep It Simple Stupid” in early 2022. A few months later, by August, the design was finalized as the payload for the first Ariane 6 flight.
Eagle-eyed Pi fans will be pleased to know that the unit is equipped with a Raspberry Pi camera, with YPSat aiming to capture images of the fairing and payload separation, take photos from the top of the upper stage and transmit the recorded data back to Earth before it powers down and re-enters the atmosphere.
YPSAT is Worked perfectlyWhile the whole operation went smoothly, from detecting the launch to photographing the moment the fairing separated and taking images of Earth from orbit, the re-entry part didn’t go so well. Equipped with Raspberry Pi imaging hardware, YPSat will remain in space until the orbit of the Ariane 6 upper stage eventually decays and the payload is destroyed.
Because it’s relatively cheap and flexible, Arm-based Raspberry Pi hardware tends to show up everywhere. Not only will YPSat be demonstrating cameras, but ESA also runs the AstroPi project, which allows code to run on a Raspberry Pi aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and NASA is using the computer for data protection. Captured by the SuperBIT balloon imaging telescope, and small computers periodically Used by enthusiasts Since it was founded over 10 years ago, it has undergone a variety of experiments.
Did you use your Raspberry Pi camera hardware to capture the first Ariane 6 fairing separation moment? Awesome!®
