Here are minutes of our meeting on Thursday — please just reply with, or let me know, any corrections — thanks!:
Phoning in: Arnold Gaertner (NRC-INMS), Cordell Grant (UTIAS-SFL), Karun Thanjavur (UVic), and Keith Vanderlinde (Toronto)
Image analysis from the Oct. 11 flight is still in progress — of the three main steps: 1) calculating the expected photometry (from the GPS range, payload attitude sensor, LED specs from the manufacturer, telescope mirror reflectance specs, and SBIG camera QE specs etc), 2) measuring the observed photometry from the images, and 3) checking for stars on standards lists on the images and measuring their photometry, only step 1) is essentially done — we’ll post more on the image analysis in the next couple weeks.
Yorke was unfortunately completely swamped with grading to talk about operations status, but things are quite fine, and both the science payload and spare are open on the lab table at Dartmouth but are ready to fly, and if there is a decent period with good weather, either or both of a daytime flight to observe parafoil operation, and a night flight to get more data, will be done. (BTW, I’ll be in NH from Dec. 8 - 30, and can perhaps help out.)
Laboratory calibration-wise, Karun has been making very extensive progress on the goniometric measurements, and now has a lot of gorgeous data. He’ll post a note on that sometime soon. His setup is now fully light-tight and working excellently. We’ll send off the spheres to Arnold at NRC next week — which is excellent timing, since Karun will be away for the 2 weeks after that, and Arnold will have a brief break in his lighting standards measurements and can take a quick look at the spheres. Karun also now has some MODTRAN results, and he’s just waiting to interface with Stubbs on those.
At UTIAS-SFL, Cordell mentioned that Houman might provide an even-smaller version of the multicolour laser module design, as reducing its volume further beyond Houman’s current design might be necessary for the nanosat. As Keith noted, optimizing the design of the optical payload is indeed the right thing to do before even considering the microwave payload, as we need to progress further on the balloon studies for the latter before even considering nanosat design for microwave payload.
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 (still) almost out, and still just needs a couple more Justin-o-processor cycles before we submit it, which we’ll definitely try to do before the next meeting. There’s also a CFI (Canada Foundation for Innovation) competition later this year and early next year, which we’ve submitted a UVic-internal LoI for, and for which the UVic-internal application itself is due on Dec. 4. The 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.
In late-breaking microwave news, Keith reported that the wire winding for the polarization grid for the microwave source is now ready there at the UofT, and the sources are in hand, so Keith’s crew will be completing and doing testing of that over the next weeks.
That's all I remember, please send things I forgot. Next telecon in 2 weeks, on Thursday, Nov. 28, at 2:30 pm Eastern time.
cheers, thanks all! justin
On Thu, 14 Nov 2013 03:22:25 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi, > > Telecon tomorrow (Nov. 14) at our regular time of 2:30 pm Eastern time > (11:30 am Pacific, 20.30 European). Discussion items include: data > analysis of the Oct. 12 flight images, upcoming flights and plans, > 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. > > 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) Data analysis of the Oct. 12 flight > II) Upcoming flights and other operational work > III) Pre- and post-flight calibration and goniometric calibrations > IV) Flights beyond NH > V) Nanosat, and new multicolour laser module, design > VI) Computing/website > VII) Upcoming grant application status > VIII) AOB > > Talk to you all tomorrow! > justin > > Attachments: > http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2012/11/12/18.02-43361-Schedule-20120702_hqp.pdf >