Capstone Design Project

For my final-year capstone project at McGill University, I designed and tested a flight termination system for a stratospheric balloon flight for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Our objective was to develop a reliable, reusable, and effective flight termination system for the balloon’s flight train. The termination system serves two critical purposes: the termination of a stratospheric balloon flight on command from the ground and the automatic decoupling of the cord and balloon remains in the event of a balloon burst. Consequently, the flight termination system was designed to endure stratospheric conditions, maintain effective communication with the ground stations even from altitudes as high as 35 kilometers, and feature an independent power source with the capacity to sustain continuous operation throughout an entire flight. Additionally, the separator was required to comply with all the standards and requirements included in revision C of the Canadian Space Agency’s Expandable Balloon System Requirements Document

During this project, I led communications between our team, supervising professors, and our client, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). I contributed to the mechanical design using Siemens NX, collaborated on the integration of avionics and recovery systems, and led the testing campaigns, including thermal vacuum chamber tests, flight tests, and pull tests. This project combined hands-on prototyping, rigorous testing, and systems engineering, providing me with real-world experience in aerospace hardware development and mission planning.