Here are minutes of our meeting on Thursday Oct. 22 -- please just reply with (or let me know) any corrections -- thanks!:
Attendees: just Arnold Gaertner (NRC) and me this time -- a short meeting
Yorke was preparing for the launch of ALTAIR 15 that Saturday -- flight summary just below -- hence was unable to attend. (He'll be back for this week's meeting of course though.)
ALTAIR 15 was launched from the Thetford Academy grounds at 4:51 am on Sat. Oct. 24 by Tim Smith and Bob Eccher, with a southeast track rather similar to the path taken by ALTAIR 14. Yorke and Asher were manning the science station. The telescope alignment/tracking were unfortunately an issue this time, and Yorke believes that he unfortunately did not manage to get ALTAIR within any of the telescope images. (Yorke has yet to upload the data though.) Neither the Meade nor the Arcturus f/10 -> f/6.3 field-of-view expander / focal reducer was used. ALTAIR 15 reached over 8000 meters before cutdown, and descended to landing at the top of a tall tree on the east side of the north end of Goose Pond. (BTW, the landing site for ALTAIR 14 was the east side of the south end of Goose Pond.) Tim and Asher managed to recover the payload unscathed, using the line launcher, three days later on the afternoon of Tue. Oct. 27. In-flight video is not available, as the onboard video was not turned on, due to some confusion at launch.
_Many_ lessons should be learned from this flight; here is a short non-exhaustive list:
1) The field-of-view expanders / focal reducers *** need to be used *** -- they were purchased for a very important reason;
2) *Must* figure out any nonstandard difficulties with tracking and alignment (beyond those which can be solved with a field expander);
3) We should a) ensure the onboard video camera instructions are not confusing (FYI, I found them rather confusing for A14 launch, and so I'm not
surprised that Tim and Bob didn't manage to turn it on for A15) and
b) mount *two*, not just one, onboard video cameras, with one of the cameras observing upwards to view parafoil deployment;
4) Science site should definitely observe stellar standards prior to launch.
One slightly disappointing thing is that 3b) and 4) are both copies of "lessons learned" 2) and 5) from the list of the 5 lessons that should have been learned from A14, and weren't addressed (to a significant extent). When adjusting the procedures manual for the next flight, part of the purpose is to make sure that every one of the list of lessons that should be learned is at very least reasonably or partly addressed. It is good that at least one lesson was learned from A14, but when several items on should-be-learned lists don't get addressed, just because they are not the one lesson at the very top of the list, is asking for trouble -- that needs to not happen.
Again, the payload is unscathed, and Yorke has confirmed that it is still quite functional. Regarding the next flight, if another one can be done this year before snow and cold set in, 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 is always good practice to do another pre-flight, long-range check of radio transmission (to Gile Mtn. or Mt. Ascutney).
Karun has 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 working with 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 has now gotten the pulse width modulation code for it up and running! -- video at
https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/MotorAndPropTests/IMG_2136.MOV
He's now working on the simultaneous control of two propulsion motors, as well as on monitoring the input from the on-chip A/D converters (which will be monitoring temperatures, motor RPM rates, and current flow). We also have the beginnings of a little mechanical test rig, the internals and externals of which can be found in the first two attached photos. Per Yorke's suggestion, we have tested the servo motor in dry ice:
https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/MotorAndPropTests/IMG_2130.MOV
and Paul Poffenberger here has tested the battery and the servo in vacuum (third attached photo). In ALTAIR, 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.
We sent in our CSA FAST 2015 application a couple of weeks ago. Next one will be a NATO "Science for Peace and Security" application which will be due at the end of February.
That's all I remember, please send things that I forgot. Next telecon this week, on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 4 pm Eastern time.
cheers, thanks all! justin
On Thu, 22 Oct 2015 03:57:50 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi! > > Telecon tomorrow (Oct. 22) 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 (4 pm Eastern, 1 pm 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/2015/11/02/17.58-64210-asseminternal.jpg
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2015/11/02/17.58-182-assemexternal.jpg
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2015/11/02/17.58-87793-batteryvactest.jpg
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
