Spaceworks Level 2
Thermal Optics
This course continued off the knowledge and skills taught in Spaceworks Lvl 1 and set up new teams of students who cooperated to develop a thermal camera in a cleanroom-inspired environment.
Mission Objectives
We were given the goal of making a thermal camera that meets the following requirements:
- Make use of a moving shutter
- Measure the temperature of three thermal objects with an accuracy of 1.5 degrees Celcius
- Maintain a budget under $250
The camera succeeded in all of it's objectives.
- The shutter blocked all light and was rotated via stepper motor
- Temprature target reached
- A budget of $218 was used
Thermal Data
You may have noticed the thermal image above and it's detailed mesurements. This was possible because we stored the IR camera data in a matrix form, with numbers indicating the temeprature of each "pixel". So every pixel of the image is represented by the respective number in a cell. Below is an example of what the raw data for one of these images would look like (cut down to 6x6 to save space):
| 34.99 | 35.99 | 36.09 | 35.99 | 35.79 | 35.79 |
| 35.99 | 36.89 | 36.59 | 36.49 | 36.39 | 36.59 |
| 35.29 | 35.79 | 35.79 | 35.89 | 35.99 | 35.79 |
| 35.89 | 36.79 | 36.69 | 36.59 | 36.29 | 36.59 |
| 35.59 | 36.29 | 35.99 | 35.79 | 35.79 | 35.89 |
| 36.09 | 36.19 | 36.39 | 36.39 | 36.29 | 36.59 |
Personal Responsibilities
I led the design of the camera enclosure and assisted in the system assembly. The assembly was commended by Spaceworks staff for being the only one to make use of a custom PCB board for easier soldering.
Team Members
This project was completed by Conor Earley, Lyra Gordon, Neil Naik, and myself with assistance from Spaceworks staff.