Payload · 2026 · Concept test

Picosat concept test.

Our first try at a sensor swarm, built to ride inside Pioneer. It never flew.

What it was

A small group on the team built it to see whether the swarm idea could work at all. It wasn't a finished flight payload, and it wasn't the student workshop build.

The question it asked: if you fly 24 identical motion sensors on the same rocket, how much do they disagree?

Nodes
24
Each node
ESP32-C6 with an MPU-6050 motion sensor
Network
CAN bus to a central hub
Radio
915 MHz to the ground
Flights
None
Six green node boards standing on a round carrier board
Concept-test node boards on their round carrier board.

What happened

We took Pioneer and the payload to Launch Canada 2026 in Timmins in August. The rocket didn't pass pre-launch inspection: there were faults in the payload and in the rocket's assembly. So neither flew.

It wasn't the ending we wanted, but it showed us exactly what to fix before trying again.

What's different in Hivemind

  • TestingEvery node goes through bench, cold and vacuum tests before flight.
  • PowerOne central battery pack instead of a cell on every node.
  • NetworkTwo separate CAN buses, so one fault can't silence the whole swarm.
  • Fail-safeNodes keep logging on their own if the central computer goes quiet.
See HivemindSee Pioneer