[Paper] apex Mk.2/Mk.3, apex MCC, apex MRMSS

Finally the series of studies of the apex Mk.2/Mk.3 experiments flown on MAPHEUS 10 (2021-12-06) are peer-reviewed and published. You will find them as follows:

apex Mk.2/Mk.3: Secure Live Transmission of the First Flight of Trichoplax adhaerens in Space Based on Components Off-the-Shelf: https://doi.org/10.3390/eng6090241
The apex MCC: Blueprint of an Open-Source, Secure, CCSDS-Compatible Ground Segment for Sounding Rockets, CubeSats, and Small Lander Missions: https://doi.org/10.3390/eng6090246
The apex MRMSS: A Multi-Role Mission Support System and Service Module Simulator for Payloads of Sounding Rockets and Other Space Applications: https://doi.org/10.3390/eng6090247

Some additional materials:

apex (2019) study and press releases: https://www.nico-maas.de/?p=2134
Flight apex Mk.II in MExA on MAPHEUS 10. YouTube. 2021. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4EP9TFVHm4
MAPHEUS 10 Launch (Radarhill). YouTube. 2021. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N74bLjJrR0
MAPHEUS 10 Launch (Dome/apex Groundsegment Weathercam). YouTube. 2021. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_K23H79Ijo
DLR MAPHEUS 10 Sounding Rocket Campaign. DLR Weblog. 2021. Available online: https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2021/04/20211206_journey-into-microgravity-for-seven-experiments

[PiAndMore] Yamcs Presentation

Here is my presentation to Yamcs @ PiAndMore 13 (University of Applied Sciences Trier, 22.04.2023)

Yamcs_PiAndMore13.pdf

Videorecording can be found here: tbd

[Talk] IoT Happy Hour #56: balena in Space

I took part in balena's IoT Happy Hour #56 on 11.06.2021 to talk about the past, present and upcoming apex missions. You can watch the talk here on balenas Youtube channel.

[Paper] apex: A new commercial off-the-shelf on-board computer platform for sounding rockets

In order to supersede the aging Microchip ATMEGA328P as the de facto standard for Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) On-Board Computers (OBCs) with a more powerful system for different kinds of high-speed sensors and image acquisition applications, we developed advanced processors, encryption, and security experiment (apex). The platform consisting of a newly developed OBC using COTS components has been flight tested during the ATEK/MAPHEUS-8 sounding rocket campaign. The main advantages of the apex OBC lies in the speed and simplicity of the design while maintaining operational security with a redundant master-master microcontroller system, as well as dual flash storage within each master. Additionally, a single board computer with a containerized and failure-resistant Operating System (OS) (balenaOS) was included to allow usage of a high-definition camera or other more compute-intensive tasks. The bench and flight tests were performed successfully and already showed feasible ways to further improve operational performance.

Published by "American Institute of Physics" (AIP) in "Review of Scientific Instruments" ( ISSN: 0034-6748 / DOI: 10.1063/1.5118855 )

Download (Paper): DLR Elib

Watch Video of flight on Youtube

Release on balena.io Blog (09.10.2019)

Release on Hackaday (11.10.2019)

Release on thenewstack.io (03.11.2019)

balena in Space Talk (11.06.2021)

2nd generation apex Mk.2/Mk.3 studies