Designed by: Gary Fussell & Sarah Wattenberg
The Pleiades 3 mission patch symbolizes the team’s first scientific flight. The follow up to Pleiades 1, which revealed critical discrepancies: a mismatch between simulation altimeter data, ground-based camera calculations, and the onboard altimeter reading. Pleiades 3’s purpose is to tease out this uncertainty by carrying two altimeters in a modified nose cone to pinpoint the source of these discrepancies.
The mountains in the back are traced from the launch site in Lucerne Valley. The arrows on the rocket symbolize a free body diagram with thrust, drag, lift, and mass being shown. The two lines from the nose depicting the main goal of the mission is to determine the rocket’s true altitude.
Dark Works Space Labs 