Here are minutes of our meeting on Thursday -- please just reply with (or let me know) any corrections -- thanks!:
Attendees: Arnold Gaertner (NRC), Yorke Brown (Dartmouth), Cordell Grant and Houman Hakima (UTIAS-SFL), and Susana Deustua (STScI)
Yorke and Cynthia are watching the skies for decent weather, and also working on finishing their latest diffused-LED-based light source. Besides that, and a few minor but needed software updates Yorke is making, things are ready to go there if good weather can be found before the snow sets in. For a backup tracking system, Yorke and I just ordered a SPOT Trace: http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=128 , which uses the Globalstar network of satellites (an Iridium competitor) to find the location of one's small SPOT Trace device nearly worldwide. (Throughout North America and the majority of South America, for example -- although currently the Globalstar satellites do not cover Hawaii. http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=108) It costs less than current competitor products (e.g. Iridium, Inmarsat, Globalstar, etc have had satellite modems available for a decade or so, but they've previously always been too expensive for us, which is why we so far haven't used them): a SPOT Trace is just $119 for the device and $99 per year for the service. We'll see if this SPOT Trace works for us. If it works very well for us, it might conceivably eliminate the need for a back-up telemetry card with a second DNT transceiver.
Houman and Cordell are progressing well with the 3-D modelling of the nanosat payload, and of the multicolour laser module. Houman has some new solid-model renderings, and now is working on the thermal radiator for the satellite, and a light-tight shroud to go around the light path between the laser and the integrating sphere. Houman is interested in getting some info from Keith V. regarding the design of microwave polarimetry calibration sources, and I'll interface with Keith regarding that.
Susana gave an update on how the JHU senior undergraduate engineering design students who are working with her and Nathan are doing. They have produced a beautiful over-50-page engineering design document on details of their design, with a motor-based cutdown system, return-to-home function, etc, and are making excellent progress. Very soon they'll be able to start doing some more outdoor tests -- already they found that a tank of helium purchased at a party store did not provide sufficient lift. When they're ready, they'll let us see their design document to get a few external comments. The SPOT Trace device mentioned above might potentially be of some use for them as well -- it will be good for us to get some initial experience in New Hampshire with its usability.
The folks at Buoyant Aircraft Systems / Peerless Garment in Winnipeg are working on our test superpressure balloon -- they have begun strength tests of the polyethylene material and of the heat seals they make between gores. Their heat seals test out to be nearly as strong as the material itself, which is a very good initial sign. They will interface with the engineers at Raven-Aerostar (Mike Smith and Kurt Sehnert) to see if their materials tests are consistent with what Raven-Aerostar gets from its own polyethylene-based film. If not, they will consider buying a roll of Raven-Aerostar's film (but doing the cutting, sealing, and assembly in Winnipeg).
Significant progress continues to be made on the study of photon scattering in a diffusive medium (a few plots at https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/photontoymc.pdf) and I'll be sending more very soon on this, as well as on analytic photon scattering calculation results, and comparison between the two methods. And regarding the concept for very long-range (up to 100 km and beyond) optical transceiver communication with the balloon in nighttime flight, we decided to hold off with Ericsson, primarily so that we could test out the idea in December in Hanover, where essentially all the equipment needed for a long-range ground-based test of the idea is present. Assuming that test works, we'll certainly include the construction of such a system in a Google proposal which is due in April of this coming year.
That's all I remember, please send things that I forgot. Next telecon in two weeks, on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 1:30 pm Eastern time.
cheers, thanks all! justin
On Thu, 06 Nov 2014 01:09:41 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi, > > Telecon tomorrow (Nov. 6) at the usual time: 1:30 pm Eastern (10:30 am > Pacific, 19.30 European). Discussion items include: upcoming flights and > weather, light source modelling, goniometric and pre- and post-flight > calibration, nanosat and new laser module design, computing/website, > grant applications, and recap of schedules. A reminder of the CSA > project timeline is attached. > > 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 call you at the usual time (1:30 pm Eastern, 10:30 am 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) Progress toward next flight > 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 >