Game cyclus part II: working principle

Last week we showed the assembly of the Dice Payload. This week you can see how the game cycles work, these are the steps the dice payload takes to ‘throw’ the dice.  You can see in the video on the right how the Dice Payload first starts with the slider (‘slede’ in Dutch) moving forward while the sweeper (‘wijzerplaat’ in Dutch) rotates to make sure the dice don’t stack since this would block the motors. When the slider has moved all the way to the front the dice will be clamped in between the two pieces of glass. Then the LED’s will light up and the camera is able to take a picture. This picture will be sent down to earth such that children can play a game using the numbers ‘thrown’ by our satellite. In the final step of the cycle the slider will move backwards again and the sweeper will spin to give the dice momentum in 0g and to make them tumble and spin.

Next week we will show you the dice payload in action so keep an eye out for the next blog post!