Signal Processing System for Pressure Rate Data of the Auxiliary Power Units on the Space Shuttle

摘要

For the positioning of engines during launch and operation of flight control surfaces during launch and re-entry, each of three auxiliary power units on the space shuttle use hydrazine to power a turbine. If a leak occurs in one of these units, significant problems can arise on the space shuttle. The pressure and temperature of the tank where the hydrazine is stored are obtained via signals provided by sensors. These signals need to be filtered and processed in order to develop graphics that show, and data that monitors the status of the system at all times. This paper addresses the problem of developing a filtering system for those signals based on state models and filters, such as the Kalman filter, that will accurately filter the noise and account for data jumps and gaps, without resulting in misinterpretations of the data. Although no definite system will be shown to solve the problem, suggestions for the attributes of such a system will be provided.