After coming to the conclusion that our original secondary mission (Parafoil guided landing) was not viable we went to our backup idea.
We are going to make a Geiger-Müller counter using a Soviet era Geiger-Müller tube and a 400 Volt power supply extracted from an electric fly catcher.
Our aim is continuously measuring radiation levels as our CanSat descends and comparing those values to radiation at ground level. As we go higher up there is less atmospheric shielding from cosmic rays, so radiation levels should rise, this is what we are looking to prove.
This mission can also provide some insight into the affects of vibrations and high acceleration on the measurements of a Geiger-Müller tube.
The most challenging part of this device is building the circuit that will produce the 400V required for the SMB-20 Geiger Tubes operation. Because the real world power draw of a Geiger tube is almost negligible a simple off the shelf booster circuit can be harvested from an electronic fly swatter. This circuit will produce a high enough voltage which will be regulated to 400V using zener diodes. The counting of the clicks will be done using a simple transistor and the ESP microcontroller connected in place of the piezzo buzzer in most circuits, counting the clicks.
Once we conduct our first test we will make a separate blog post of all the safety precautions in detail. (Possible title: How we are -despite our name – NOT going to blow up everyone’s CanSat)
