Here are minutes of our meeting yesterday -- please just reply with (or let me know) any corrections -- thanks!:
Phoning in: Houman Hakima (UTIAS-SFL), Karun Thanjavur (UVic), Arnold Gaertner (NRC-INMS), Yorke Brown (Dartmouth/Harvard), Keith Vanderlinde (UToronto)
First, just to (per a request for me to mention it -- I'll send such assessments every 2 months or so) repeat how we're doing as compared with our timeline: Balloon-wise, our "Balloon Payloads Ready" milestone was set as Aug. 1, 2013, and our "Initial Balloon Data" milestone was set as Oct. 15, 2013. So we're not extremely seriously behind quite _yet_, but we _are_ in serious danger of becoming so soon -- we definitely need flights and data to avoid getting more behind schedule. Nanosat-wise, the "First iteration nanosat preliminary design complete" milestone is Oct. 15, so again we're not _very_ behind yet -- but again in danger of becoming so quite soon.
Operations-wise, Yorke had just come from a Greencube meeting, and is gathering students and supplies for our two upcoming flights, which will occur very soon (while the weather and winds are still decent enough in NH for low-altitude, at least, flights). The plan for the next two flights is 1) a quick daytime flight to observe operation of the parafoil steering, and then 2) a night flight to get telescope images of the payload in flight. Classes at Dartmouth end at Thanksgiving, so the couple weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are the next conceivable opportunity we could have for flights at Mt. Hopkins.
Laboratory calibration-wise, Karun now has the setup for goniometric measurements of the integrating sphere at UVic ready to go, and is about to take data with it, which he will report about at the next meeting. Following that, we will then send the sphere to Arnold, who will then be ready for some first tests with the source and integrating sphere. Karun is also working on both Modtran-based simulation of ALTAIR images, and may additionally have some plots etc. to report on that for next meeting as well.
At UTIAS-SFL, Houman has beautiful initial mechanical drawings for the new multicolour laser module -- he will meet on Monday with Cetin at World Star Tech to refine the details, but his drawings have already been shown to Cetin (as well as to Yorke, Karun, Chris Stubbs, and me) and they look great -- the only likely changes after Houman's meeting on Monday will be minor. So I just need to finish up the DND-NSERC grant request with Houman's drawings in them!
On computing/website, things appear stable -- please just either post a note or let me know if any fixes or changes are needed.
On upcoming grant applications, the DND-NSERC grant proposal with World Star Tech is essentially complete and I'll have a version that is essentially ready for us to submit by the end of this weekend (I'll send it around on Monday or so). There is also a CFI (Canada Foundation for Innovation) competition later this year and early next year, which we have submitted a UVic-internal LoI for. This CFI competition is mainly intended for large projects (the expected budgets for proposals in this CFI program are between $2.5M and $10M), and our prospective larger-project partner is the PFS spectrometer project for the Subaru Telescope, and our LoI was jointly-submitted with theirs. Yorke is also talking with the JPL folks again regarding upcoming NASA grant opportunities.
Microwave-wise, Keith reports that things are going very well at Toronto -- the polarizing grid has now been fabricated, the source is now basically ready to be ordered, and some receiver equipment for performing tests is now available at UofT. We are still all working closely together with James Forbes (who is now at UMich) regarding attitude control for the microwave payload and test flights.
That's all I remember, please send things I forgot. Next telecon in 2 weeks, on Thurs., Oct. 17, at 2:30 pm Eastern time!
cheers, thanks all! justin
On Thu, 03 Oct 2013 02:07:21 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi, > > Telecon tomorrow (Thursday Oct. 3) at our new regular time of 2:30 pm > Eastern time (11:30 am Pacific, 20.30 European). Discussion items > include: upcoming operational work, goniometric calibration, pre- and > post-flight calibration, nanosat and new multicolour laser module > design, computing/website, upcoming grant applications, and recap of > operation plans. > > A reminder of the CSA project timeline is attached, and I should mention > how we're doing as compared with our timeline: Balloon-wise, our > "Balloon Payloads Ready" milestone was set as Aug. 1, 2013, and our > "Initial Balloon Data" milestone was set as Oct. 15, 2013. So we're not > extremely seriously behind quite _yet_, but we _are_ in serious danger > of becoming so soon -- we definitely need flights and data to avoid > getting more behind schedule. Nanosat-wise, the "First iteration nanosat > preliminary design complete" milestone is Oct. 15, so again we're not > _very_ behind yet -- but again in danger of becoming so quite soon. > > Here's the dial-in info: If you are calling in from Canada or U.S.: > 1. Dial Toll-Free Number: 866-740-1260 (U.S. & Canada) > 2. Enter 7-digit access code: 5082741 followed by the # > > If you are calling in from elsewhere: > 1. To locate International Toll-Free Numbers go to > http://www.readytalk.com/intl (enter 7-digit access code 5082741) > 2. Dial toll free number from web link > 3. Enter Passcode: Enter 7-digit ACCESS CODE: 5082741 followed by the # > > Here's the tentative agenda: > I) Plans for upcoming flights and other operational work > II) Pre- and post-flight calibration and goniometric calibrations > III) Plans for flights beyond the upcoming flights > IV) Nanosat, and new multicolour laser module, design > V) Computing/website > VI) Upcoming grant application status > VII) AOB > > Talk to you all tomorrow! > justin > > Attachments: > http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2012/11/12/18.02-43361-Schedule-20120702_hqp.pdf >