Abstract#

Anna Shaposhnik is proposing the funding of a small deployable stabilizing camera capsule for capturing 3rd person point of view of rocket deployment and the fall to Earth. The project is unique for its compact size and use of common off-the-shelf hardware. This project is a technology step in her company ORBES (https://orbes.space) larger vision of providing new ways to document space projects.

Problem

Rockets and satellites don't have a 3rd person POV, yet visual imagery is one of the most important exports from space missions. Blue Origin is among the first to give us stunning 360 view of the new Shepard deployment. As we look to the future, engineering robust and small tools to capture dynamic shots of a mission will be paramount, both for LEO, the Moon and Mars.

Solution#

We are proposing the design and testing of a deployable drop payload from COTS parts + some structure that we would open source. (Note: we cannot open source the full flight code, as part of it is part of my company's IP, however, it is accessible and the parts themselves have lots of online instruction for folks to program it themselves).

Note: This project is CURRENTLY in development, with a tight timeline of a couple weeks from start to finish. We are confident we will deliver a sound engineering solution, an exciting video product, and visual imagery of the progress and the launch.

[PICTURES INCLUDED IN GOOGLE DRIVE LINK]

Benefits#

Having stunning visual imagery from rocket projects is one of the key joys of rocketry. For the community, we are making this payload design available for high powered rocketry projects for 8 inch+ rockets to deploy from the recovery bay. The open source component allows iterations and adaptability across applications.

Further, our mastery of reaction wheel control in one axis for this project and the flight qualification of the software and all the other aspects of the payload will lead us to be confident in our next cube satellite project which will also be using similar low cost reaction wheels. This will have a great benefit to my company and accelerate our progress as we continue to build space "drones" for filming and maintenance of space assets.

Risks#

Objectives#

You can write as many OKRs as you think are needed. One focused goal is preferred instead of many. OKRs should use SMART principles (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound).

Objective #1: Recover the video SD card and data SD cards from an actual flight test on a spaceshot sounding rocket

Key Results for Objective #1:

• SD card from ESP-32 CAM and data card from the Teensy is recovered after the payload lands.

Member(s) responsible for OKR and their role: Anna Shaposhnik - project lead

Objective #2: Share the data with the community, including open sourcing the hardware and CAD model to the community This will include a planned 1600 x 1200 video (2 fps) of Earth from space as the payload falls, which will include the curvature of the Earth.

Key Results for Objective #2:

• Link to website recap of the project and links to the CAD file on Github distributed within MoonDAO and online, achieves good traction on Linked In and Instagram (1000+ views).

Member(s) responsible for OKR and their role: Anna Shaposhnik - project lead

Team (Table A)#

Project Lead: The Project Lead and representative for the project within the MoonDAO Senate. The Project Lead is responsible for:

Initial Team: Projects may not need an initial team. It can just be an individual submitting a proposal. You may also create generic roles and hire other teammates after the project is approved. As a general rule of thumb, try to keep teams small and focused in the beginning, with clear roles, deliverables, and OKRs for each member. Team members are responsible for:

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Team Bios

Project Lead: Anna Shaposhnik is the Founder & CEO of ORBES (Techstars '25), the space drone company. Her flagship product, ORB, is an autonomous free-flying drone that captures live media from space stations — enabling real-time mission storytelling and bringing the wonder of space to audiences on Earth in ways never before possible. Beyond the camera, ORB tackles a critical infrastructure problem: astronaut labor is dangerous, expensive, and impossible to scale. By automating $300M a year in manual work, ORB frees human crews to focus on the science.

A Zed Factor Fellow and winner of the Iovine and Young Development Prize, Anna brings a rare creative-technical lens to deep tech. A USC-trained creative technologist with a background spanning 3D visualization, filmmaking, VR/AR, and astronautical engineering, she previously led marketing at Orbit Fab — supporting the world's first commercial on-orbit fuel sale — and served as Multimedia Design Lead at the USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory. She believes the full breadth of our humanity belongs in space.

Social links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaglyph/

https://www.instagram.com/annaglyph.art

https://www.instagram.com/annaglyph.design/

Timeline (Table B)#

Assemble and deliver payload

We have strong in roads with USC Rocket Propulsion lab who have already evaluated the payload and are interested in it. While it's too short notice for the spaceshot this April, they are interested in including us on their next spaceshot.

Back up launch opportunities include potentially Berkely or going directly to NASA's sounding rocket program | | ~45 | May | Work to secure alternate opportunities | | ~80 | June | Finish write up of the project, include a list of all our purchased parts for open sourcing the BOM

Share testing results, which will include a parachute drop test to assess the impact it will sustain, and make sure we can recover the sd cards from the camera and Teensy. It will also include a string test in one degree of freedom to show our reaction wheel control logic |

Deadline for the project:

Design, all ground testing and writeup: end of Q2

Flight: by end of Q4

Budget (Table C)#

These are fixed costs to make your project happen. This might also include bounties that you'll make inside of the DAO (it's recommended to have some amount allocated for bounties or competitions), or specific work that must be contracted out to complete the project. Please provide links to quotes where possible. The total may be expressed in any token, however funding amount will be sent in ETH or MOONEY based on current prices at the time of the transaction being created. Proposal budgets must be less than or equal to 1/5 of the total quarterly budget.