Here are minutes of our meeting on Thursday Nov. 5 -- please just reply with (or let me know) any corrections -- thanks!:
Attendees: Yorke Brown (Dartmouth), Arnold Gaertner (NRC), Karun Thanjavur (UVic), Susana Deustua (STScI)
Yorke gave us an overview of the ALTAIR 15 flight -- per the flight summaries provided both in last meeting's minutes and on Yorke's altair1.dartmouth.edu site, all systems on the payload itself appear to have functioned rather well, however the ground observations appear to have not been successful in imaging the payload, due to issues summarized (essentially: tracking, alignment, field expander) in the last set of meeting minutes. As one possible future way to help us to optimize the GPS tracking and alignment algorithms with the Meade telescope, we're starting to consider a possible future purchase of a small GPS-enabled drone (probably one of these things: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=68860 ) to possibly keep together with the telescope for regular telescope tracking test purposes.
We're still analyzing the data from the A15 flight, and working on a processing pipeline to 1) add a world coordinate system (WCS) header to the SBIG-generated FITS files, in order both to verify and improve the RA/dec estimate taken from the Meade, and also obtain some geometric distortion info and corrections, via astrometry from the stars on the images; and then 2) to obtain initial photometry estimates for both extracted stars and for (if/when present) ALTAIR from the image. We've previously been doing the above manually, but that's not really an option if one wants photometry for several stars in each of multiple images -- we've never before tried to obtain data for multiple different unknown stars from multiple ALTAIR flight images.
Yorke has ordered new helium, and if another flight 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
and now Karun has also solved the problem of simultaneous control of two propulsion motors, and of controlling a servo as well as propulsion motors. He's now working 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. 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 few weeks ago, and the 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. 19, at 4 pm Eastern time.
cheers, thanks all! justin
On Thu, 05 Nov 2015 02:53:33 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi! > > Telecon tomorrow (Nov. 5) at the usual time: 4:00 pm Eastern (1:00 pm > Pacific, 10:00 am Hawaii, 22.00 European). Discussion items include: > debrief of and lessons learned from ALTAIR 15 flight on Oct. 24, flight > plans, recent calibration and observation tests, light sources and light > source modelling, goniometric and pre- and post-flight calibration, > propulsion work, 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 Skype-call for some reason and would like to join, just send me an e-mail (jalbert@uvic.ca). > > Here's the tentative agenda: > > I) Debrief of ALTAIR 15 flight, lessons learned, and to-do list > II) Upcoming flight plans > III) Lab calibration and observation tests > IV) Diffused light source and its modelling, pre- and post-flight calibration, and goniometric calibrations > V) Propulsion & motor control work > VI) Nanosat solid models & Houman's thesis > VII) Computing/website > VIII)Grant applications > IX) 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/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
