New Zealand Data Acquisition

Data Acquisition (DAQ, or sometimes DAS) is the term used to describe sampling information from the real world to generate data that can then be manipulated or analysed. Typically this involves measuring parameters such as movement, load and vibration using sensors and logging the data on a computer.

Rocket Lab has built up significant capability in this field and is an integral part of the in-house development and testing program. Examples of data we are interested in are stresses and strains in components, load measurement and strain-gauging, vibration analysis, pressures and temperatures. The Ātea vehicle has a comprehensive on-board data acquisition system that is used to keep track of the vehicle’s position, speed, acceleration, temperatures and systems status. These channels are sampled at very high frequencies (or sampling rates) and logged in the on-board computer. The DAS also has the additional capacity to be used for a client’s payload, such as high-accuracy solar, plasma physics experiments. Rocket Lab’s laboratory is based in Parnell , Auckland, New Zealand.