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Article: Data acquisition in microgravity: university students developed a methodology to test frequency shift in crystal oscillators during rocket flight.(AEROSPACE PC-BASED TEST)
- Article from:
- EE-Evaluation Engineering
- Article date:
- August 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Nelson Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Sounding rockets often are used by NASA as a cost-effective way to conduct investigations at specified times and altitudes. Experiments using these rockets provide a variety of information on the upper atmosphere, the sun, stars, galaxies, and planets. However, to gather this information as well as its location, the sounding rocket must communicate back to the launch site.
The FM-based communications scheme currently used by NASA sounding rockets is very expensive but also very forgiving in terms of center frequency drift. Conversely, a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) transceiver onboard the rockets would create greater launch-site flexibility ...