WINGS is the UMN Rocket Team's proprietary software that's used to display data during and after rocket launches. I joined the team at the start of my junior year (September 2024), and have since helped contribute to building the software's robust memory and type safe back-end using Rust and the front-end using TypeScript. I will be taking on the role of leading the software subteam starting next Fall.

The software supports both live telemetry reception through a USB port and also playback of data from previous launches through different file formats. The front-end can display processed data for visualization with its graph, indicator light, 3D model, and readout displays. The project was selected by the rocket team to be the focus of the team's podium presentation at the 2025 IREC competition because of the software's unique capability to be able to work with a variety of flight computers from different brands, which typically requires the usage of multiple ground stations, making WINGs one of the few systems out there that provide a universal ground station.

Table of Contents

• Personal Contributions
• Technologies Used

Personal Contributions

Indicator Lights

My first major contribution was creating the boolean indicator light display for the front-end. This included creating both the settings modal and the display itself. The boolean indicator lights help users monitor variables by using display lights to indicate whether the incoming data satisfies the specified inequalities or not. The lights turn green when the conditions are met, or turn red otherwise.

Indicator light settings modalIndicator lights changing colors based on incoming data

Altus Metrum Checksum

In my first back-end project, I added checksum calculations to detect accidental changes/errors in incoming telemetry data in our Altus Metrum/AltOS file handler. The rocket team uses Altus Metrum products like the TeleMetrum altimeter with GPS and RF telemetry link and the TeleDongle which is used on the ground station to interact with the rockets. By adding checksum calculations for AltOS packets, I was able to filter out bad packets sent using these products and remarkably enhance the display of rocket data. This WINGS feature works for both live data sent from the TeleMetrum and data saved to a file.

Graph displaying data before checksum calculationsGraph displaying data after checksum calculations

Zoom-Capable Graphs

I integrated the ability to zoom in or out on graphs, a long-awaited yet useful feature for data visualization. Users have the ability to zoom in on data, and drag the x-axis horizontally in order to get a closer look at older or newer data. Additionally, I created a new display element which has a fixed x-axis and works by displaying new data on the right while pushing out old data to the left, creating a sliding window or oscilloscope-style effect. This new display is useful for realtime display of time-series data.

Graphs with and without zoom-in

Other Contributions

Other contributions I've made to the project include improving the functionality and styling of all of the settings modals for the displays, adding help text/documentation throughout to improve software ease-of-use, conducting end-to-end testing to ensure implemented features work, and other various small front-end improvements. One of the most rewarding aspects of working on this project has been being able to develop software within a collaborative, team environment.

Technologies Used

Front End

• TypeScript
• SolidJS as a reactive JS library
• Tailwind CSS for styling
• Tauri software framework

Back End

• Rust
• Tauri software framework