Development of a prototype of a candidate camera payload

Abstract

The second prototype for the NUTS camera module have been tested to confirm if changes made from the first prototype were successful. The first prototype suffered from noise issues when operating at the maximum clock frequency of 96MHz. This needed to be fixed for the MT9P031 image sensor to be usable in further designs. Debugging and testing using the camera prototype hardware and software proved that the prototype managed to produce noise free images with bright parts in the images. These results enable the use of the image sensor in further prototypes. Suggestion and discussion for the next prototype has also been done. The AT32UC3C MCU was chosen to be used on the prototype for the communication to the backplane of the satellite. Software and hardware logic requirements has also been provided. These suggestion were made so that further development can begin with a better start point.