Ariane 5 Space Launcher Vehicle Equipment Bay Wireless Sensor Network Telemetry Subsystem with Smart Sensors

In this work we show the design and implementation of an efficient telemetry subsystem for Wireless Sensor Networks inside the Vehicle Equipment Bay (VEB) of the ARIANE 5. The telemetry subsystem is utilizing infrared data communication and consists of various smart sensor chips such as temperature sensor, humidity sensor, visible light intensity sensor, infrared light sensor, acceleration sensor, air pressure sensor and 10 bit analog to digital (ADC) input for analog sensors. The heart of the telemetry subsystem is a microcontroller for controlling the smart sensors and power management. The Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) that covers part of the VEB and the strong requirements to minimize the electromagnetic interference inside the launcher made infrared data communication preferable over classical RF narrow band communication. Other factors like low complexity of the infrared system compared to UWB systems are also taken in consideration. The data received by an Access Point (AP) is processed before being forwarded to a Data Concentrator.