Could a Raspberry Pi be used as a rocket flight computer?

Question

I’ve been going into amateur rocketry, and would like to step up my game a little. I want to know if I could use a raspberry pi for thrust vector control(TVC), cameras, altimeters, and accelerometers.

Answer 1

Do you wanna create a cruise missile?
🚀 😳

Answer 2

not sure if this is useful. Just a google search result:
But yes, it's a potentially dangerous activity. So proceed with caution.

https://www.instructables.com/Model-Rocket-Flight-Computer-With-Arduino/

Answer 3

Yeah it could if you wanna get rid of the raspberry pi.

Answer 4

I remember I saw some people doing that using arduino and some other components.
But be careful with these things, it may be dangerous. you need to abide by your local laws and regulations in your country before lunching any model.

Answer 5

We already set foot on the moon by 1969, by then the computer is much much much slower than the slowest Raspberry Pi.
Also Raspberry Pi has accessory for sensors and cameras, I can't see why it can't handle the job (in small scale with the right equipments).

Answer 6

Wong Hei Ming

In my opinion what you mean is hard to compare. On the one hand you are right that computers in the moon flights 5 or more decades ago were small in terms of performance compared to today. When I am informed correctly the control unit of the moon lander had a memory of 64 kB. Even the space shuttle in the 1980s had 128 kB memory. But you must take in accound that the spacecrafts were manned. There were people on bosrd who checked the relevant steps by their brainpower and experience and they had clear instructions in handbooks what to do in which situation or at each certain step on the mission. In other ways it would have hardly been possible.

On the other side there were also unmanned space missions to moon, mars or venus which were successfully completed. But I don't know how much was done by autonomously acting systems and how much was related to direct remote control.