Here are minutes of our meeting on Thursday -- please just reply with, or let me know, any corrections -- thanks!:
Phoning in: Houman Hakima and Cordell Grant (UTIAS-SFL), Yorke Brown (Dartmouth), and (at the start) Karun Thanjavur (UVic) (regrets from Arnold Gaertner (NRC))
Yorke reported that he and Cynthia have *completed* the construction of the new gondola, including all of the electronics -- all of the new boards are now fully populated and installed, and appear in initial tests to be in good working order. We congratulated them on this _extremely_ impressive performance. What now mainly remains before resuming flights is testing -- outdoor ground-to-ground testing of the telemetry, a drop test of gondola to test the new cutdown mechanism (redesigned for ease of access, the basic mechanism is identical), some code updates from Yorke, etc. We are also waiting for the new parafoil (copy of our old one) to arrive. Yorke will very shortly work on the back-up telemetry card with a second DNT transceiver, but we'll work with the current system in the meantime. Things are currently looking good for a flight before Labo(u)r Day and the beginning of the new term for us all.
Phone/internet connection troubles prevented Karun from giving his update on lab studies of the light source(s), but things are also going well in that regard. The computer automation for the spherical-coordinate goniophotometry stand that Karun and Paul have developed is now working, and the UVic machine shop is now making some enhancements/modifications of the portable payload attitude calibration test stand that we bought a few months ago. Karun and Divya are also starting to make progress on Zemax-based computational modelling.
Houman and Cordell are working on the 3-D modelling of the nanosat payload, and will be contacting us with questions when they arise. They're interested in updates to the integrating sphere that arise from the computational modelling (addition of interior baffles or a diffuser), but have plenty to work on for now, while waiting for that info to begin to arise from Karun and Divya's computational modelling.
We got one very interesting comment at the CALCON conference in Utah this past week -- a couple of atmospheric scientists at NASA Ames and UC Santa Cruz who do high-altitude U2 and Global Hawk flights cornered us to tell us that they are very interested in test-flying our payload on a high-altitude aircraft platform (as an add-on payload in a presently-unused bay). (Note that from the ground, telescope images would be a streak, since portable telescopes such as ours would almost certainly not track that fast -- and there potentially could be background from the engines, although that would be more of an effect in the IR than in the visible -- however it would be extremely interesting to do that as a test.) We will keep in close contact with those folks.
Dale George will be sending us a quote within the next week for making (for delivery sometime in the next year) one superpressure balloon (specs being: spherical of 4 meter radius when fully inflated, 25 um thick polyethylene and/or PET skin + ribs, maximum operating delta P = 2.5 kPa) for testing. I've now passed my Canadian HAM exam and have my licence, have received the pair of 433 MHz radios (http://embeddedwirelesssolutions.com/ews_rfm23bp_433mhz_development_kit , for possible far-future flights in Europe/Asia/Australia, where the 910 MHz licence-free frequency that we use in in the Western Hemisphere is used by emergency services), and am beginning to figure out how to control said radios via my computer, and am additionally about to order a pair of 144 MHz radios (http://www.lemosint.com/radiometrix/radiometrix_details.php?itemID=802) (also for testing, for the same purpose).
That's all I remember, please send things that I forgot. Next telecon in two weeks as usual, on Thursday, August 28 at 2:30 pm Eastern time.
cheers, thanks all, justin
On Thu, 14 Aug 2014 02:39:00 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi, > > Telecon tomorrow (Aug. 14) at the *slightly unusual* time of 3:00 pm > Eastern time (i.e. a half-hour later than usual: 12:00 noon Pacific, > 21.00 European [due to my being on a plane until then]). Discussion > items include: progress toward new gondola and flights, light source > modelling, goniometric and pre- and post-flight calibration, nanosat and > new laser module design, computing/website, grant applications, recap of > schedules. 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) Construction of new gondola and payload, robustness improvements, next flights > II) Light source studies and modelling, pre- and post-flight calibration, and goniometric calibrations > III) Nanosat, new integrating spheres, and multicolour laser module designs > IV) Computing/website > V) Grant applications > VI) 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 >