Here are minutes of our meeting on Thursday Sept. 24 (btw my apologies for the delay in sending these -- I just finished the final report for our CSA grant that completed in July, and writing that of course needed to come first) -- please just reply with (or let me know) any corrections -- thanks!:
Attendees: Arnold Gaertner (NRC) and Karun Thanjavur (UVic)
Yorke and Asher are just waiting for good weather in Hanover to fly ALTAIR 15 -- the weather in Hanover the past two weekends has unfortunately been poor. (Yorke had accidentally scheduled a meeting at 4 pm Eastern thinking we were on the old schedule, but he sent a report to me by e-mail.) ALTAIR is all buttoned up, ready to fly when weather and people are available, and the procedure manual is ready. Note that 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 July) just before the 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 has just received a copy of the diffusive light source which Yorke sent up from Hanover -- 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 photometry information, and yaw-pitch-roll information, from the ALTAIR gondola -- and having a copy of the diffusive light source is needed for the former. 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).
Karun is also now in possession of a sample microcontroller board (with Microchip PIC18F87J50 microcontroller -- circuit diagram attached) from the electronic shop here, to use for testing motor control for an ALTAIR motor and propulsion control microcontroller board we will be designing this term. He is working on getting the pulse width modulation code for it up and running, and then we can try attaching one (and then two) of our motors and propellers. The motor and propulsion control microcontroller board will logic interface with Yorke's main board (in a similar way to how the present cutdown-motor control board interfaces with the main board). A separate propulsion battery will of course be carried.
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.
There are several granting program due dates approaching, and a list of the ALTAIR-relevant ones is also attached. We'll be working hard on the CSA one for the next 10 days.
That's all I remember, please send things that I forgot. Next telecon this week, on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 4 pm Eastern time.
cheers, thanks all! justin
On Thu, 24 Sep 2015 02:07:29 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi! > > Telecon tomorrow (Sept. 10) at the 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. > > 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/2015/10/04/14.03-62663-GPBoard.pdf
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2015/08/18/08.29-60788-ionDeadlines_Fall2015.pdf