Here are minutes of our meeting on Thursday -- please just reply with (or let me know) any corrections -- thanks!:
Attendees: Yorke Brown (Dartmouth), Arnold Gaertner (NRC), Cordell Grant (UTIAS-SFL), Susana Deustua (STScI), and Karun Thanjavur (UVic)
Yorke and Asher are well on the way to the ALTAIR15 flight, which is nominally scheduled for the pre-dawn morning of this Sunday, Sept. 20 (with a conceivable fallback of the pre-dawn morning of Saturday Sept. 19 if weather will be bad on the 20th) in Hanover area -- with exact launch site and flight path to be determined over the next few days, as wind predictions solidify. The new parafoil (bright orange rather than red like previous ones) has arrived, and the new Kaymont balloons are there as are the two old helium tanks, so equipment-wise all is in hand. Yorke is updating the procedures manual, and it would be a very good idea to take some more standard star data (with dimmer standards and longer exposure times than the ones from a few weeks ago) just before the next flight, and also on a separate outing if possible, and it would also be good practice to do another pre-flight, long-range check of radio transmission (to Gile Mtn. or Mt. Ascutney).
Karun is leading the development here at UVic of tripod-mounted devices to, in the field immediately before launch, and right after recovery, cross-check both yaw-pitch-roll information, and photometry information, from the ALTAIR gondola. He is working with the machine shop (and the electronics shop) here to develop and construct those devices, which will be accurate & precise to 1% or so (note that photometry checks which will be more precise than that will be done in the lab, most precisely at NRC, and/or NIST -- however we want to have the ability to do quick cross-checks in the field immediately before and after flight).
Houman will send Cordell and/or us updated sections of his master's thesis soon -- that information will be extremely useful to us going forward. Also, Susana and Nathan, it would be very helpful for us all to get the JHU students' final writeup when you have a chance.
The electronics shop here at UVic has just begun work on a motor-controlling-and-monitoring printed circuit board for future electric motor propulsion, as well as to replace the current motor control board that just controls our one cutdown motor. The new board will have a microcontroller as well as ~30-amp drivers for each of six propulsion motors (plus the one cutdown motor, plus one future helium bleed valve motor, as well), and read out temperature, current, and RPM monitoring sensors. It will logic interface with Yorke's main board (in a similar way to how the present motor control board interfaces with the main board). A separate propulsion battery will of course be carried.
There are several granting program due dates approaching, and a list of the ALTAIR-relevant ones is attached. The next due date is the end of this month for the NATO "Science for Peace and Security" (SPS) program -- if we do apply for that, then we require a partner or partners in one or more "NATO partner countries," which include Australia, Sweden, and others. Susana will ask Brian Schmidt as well as folks at U Stockholm if they might be interested in a joint application per that requirement.
Susana discussed a conversation she had with Jason Rhodes at JPL regarding future high-altitude airships. Jason leads a program at JPL for future high-altitude airships, and NASA/JPL is presently working with external companies to develop them. The nominal year that a high-altitude airship from that program might be ready is 2017, however there is, naturally, a chance that that might get pushed back. High-altitude airships are a difficult challenge, to say the least -- and we ourselves will likely see how we fare with a bit of propulsion next summer when the motor control board mentioned above is ready for use. In any case, we should most definitely work with Jason, as well as his partner companies, to stay on the same page, as well as to combine and multiply our common efforts.
That's all I remember, please send things that I forgot. Next telecon in 2 weeks, on Thursday, Sept. 24, at the new 4 pm Eastern time.
cheers, thanks all! justin
On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 01:58:21 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi! > > Telecon tomorrow (Sept. 10) at our *new* usual time: 4:00 pm Eastern > (1:00 pm Pacific, 10:00 am Hawaii, 22.00 European). Discussion items > include: flight plans, recent calibration and observation tests, light > sources and light source modelling, goniometric and pre- and post-flight > calibration, communications tests, nanosat bus and payload solid models, > computing/website, grant applications, and recap of schedules. Yorke > might be away at his cabin in the woods tomorrow, if so it will be a > short(er) meeting. > > Here's how to connect: > 1) Open Skype on your computer (note that of course, you should first install Skype, http://www.skype.com , on your machine if you haven't already). > 2) In the "Contacts" menu, add me ( jalbertuvic ) as a contact, if you haven't already. > 3) Just wait for me to Skype-call you at the usual time (1:30 pm Eastern, 10:30 am Pacific). > 4) If there is any trouble, or if you don't get a call for some reason and would like to join, just send me an e-mail (jalbert@uvic.ca). > > Here's the tentative agenda: > > I) Flight plans > II) Lab calibration and observation tests > III) Diffused light source and its modelling, pre- and post-flight calibration, and goniometric calibrations > IV) Nanosat solid models & Houman's thesis > V) Computing/website > VI) Grant applications > VII) AOB > > Talk to you all tomorrow, thanks! > justin
Attachments:
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2012/11/12/18.02-43361-Schedule-20120702_hqp.pdf
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2015/08/18/08.29-60788-ionDeadlines_Fall2015.pdf