Astro Pi Flight Case #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

from Astro Pi Flight Case #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi
by Rebecca Houlihan

This Astro Pi case makes your Raspberry Pi space ready. via raspberrypi.org

You can’t just take a Raspberry Pi into space in your pocket or an old soft scoop ice cream tub. It’s too spiky for one thing. What you need is a block of aluminium the size of your head and some mad milling skills to make the best Pi case ever. Dave Honess explains:
The latest update to the Astro Pi project is the unveiling of the Astro Pi aluminium flight case that British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake will be using on the ISS. This will not be available to the public to buy because we’re only making a small number of them. We may however, in due course, release an object file so schools with a 3D printer can print one themselves.

The case is made from 6063 grade aluminium which is standard for aerospace applications. The image below was taken from the CAD software that we used to model it.
This is the top view showing the opening for the LED matrix and joystick along with a quad of buttons with an adjacent pair. The face on the right is used to attach it to a Bogen arm so that the Astro Pi can be held in place, for example if the crew want to aim the camera out of the cupola window.
The hole next to the joystick is to allow air to flow inside and reach the temperature, pressure and humidity sensors.

The design may surprise you because it’s so big a bulky. It satisfies the safety requirements that ESA and NASA have in place for small payloads aboard the ISS though!

Read more

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!