As part of the student association Astra e. V., a group of students from the University of Bremen is developing and launching a rocket. One part of the mission is to determine the rocket's maximum flight altitude. In addition to the sensors already available on the rocket, this project will investigate the use of the existing LoRa communication link to independently estimate the rocket's altitude.

For this purpose, the Doppler effect induced by the motion of the rocket in the communication link will be investigated. The temporal evolution of the Doppler shift will be used to derive information about the rocket's velocity and acceleration and, ultimately, to reconstruct its trajectory and maximum flight altitude.

To achieve this, the student will first develop a mathematical model of the rocket's kinematics and a corresponding model of the Doppler effect in the communication link. In addition, different signal waveforms and modulation schemes will be investigated and evaluated with respect to their suitability for reliable Doppler measurements.

Another part of the project is the development of a channel simulation that can be used to predict the expected Doppler measurements for different flight trajectories and system parameters. The simulation results will subsequently be compared with measurement data recorded during the actual rocket flight and used to validate the developed models and methods.

The project therefore encompasses the mathematical modeling of the rocket kinematics and communication channel, the selection of suitable signal waveforms and modulation schemes, the simulation of the overall system, and the validation of the developed models using real measurement data from the rocket flight. The goal is to reliably estimate the rocket's maximum flight altitude based on Doppler measurements obtained from the existing LoRa communication link.