Here are minutes of our meeting on Thursday -- please just reply with (or let me know) any corrections -- thanks!:
Attendees: Yorke Brown (Dartmouth), Arnold Gaertner (NRC), Karun Thanjavur (UVic), and Houman Hakima (UTIAS-SFL)
We had a bit of an issue with Skype at the beginning of the telecon -- my Skype refused to call out to the group (it would call out to individuals, and receive calls from individuals, but would not call out to the group). It was solved by Karun calling out to the group. If this happens at the next telecon, we could solve it 1) by again by Karun calling out to the group, or 2) I could just add individuals one by one, or 3) we could try WebEx. Let's try the first two options for next telecon (Jan. 29), and if it's still a problem then, we'll try WebEx for our February telecons.
Yorke and Cynthia are preparing the payloads for our upcoming flight campaign this spring; very fortunately Cynthia is committed to work this term, in amongst her classes. The diffused-LED-based light source http://altair1.dartmouth.edu/design/CDR-DiffSource.pdf is constructed, installed in the payload, and working -- a picture, looking at it from the back, of this new source installed in the payload is at http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2014/12/22/16.45-13337-sedLEDSourceInPayload.JPG .
The SPOT Trace http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=128 for backup tracking appears to work extremely well -- a screenshot of its online tracking can be found at http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2014/12/22/16.45-60425-lineTracking21Dec2014.png .
A start on the LaTeX of the handwritten analytical calculations (https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/RoughAnalyticalCalculations.pdf) of the output of a diffused light source can be found at http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2015/01/19/11.08-63968-PhotonScattering.pdf , and I'll soon be adding the comparison the results with toy Monte Carlo https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/photontoymc.pdf to that. I'll also work with Stephenson Yang on getting a new "ALTAIR Technical Note" upload facility added to the projectaltair.org website.
Raven-Aerostar is working on small zero-pressure balloons with electronic gas valves, operable at high altitude, at the top (with thin wire leads coming down to the payload). They presently sell such a configuration for large-payload balloons, but are still working on their valve-servo combination for small balloons; they estimate they should be done testing and able to get us a quote on one in a year or less from now.
We attempted to do a laser test between Mt. Tolmie and Observatory Hill (10 km direct distance) here in the Victoria area on the evening of Jan. 9, in order to test out the concept for very long-range optical transceiver communication with ALTAIR, but it was too foggy. We'll attempt to do another such test very soon. Assuming the 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.
Houman has an excellent solid model design for the nanosat which is essentially complete and is in his master's thesis, and he'll be sending info and pictures of that ASAP. And the final bits of info from our balloon studies will be able to neatly fit into Houman's and Cordell's design.
That's all I remember, please send things that I forgot. Next telecon in 2 weeks, on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 1:30 pm Eastern time.
cheers, thanks all! justin
On Thu, 15 Jan 2015 03:14:30 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi! > > First telecon of 2015 tomorrow (Jan. 15) at our usual time: 1:30 pm > Eastern (10:30 am Pacific, 19.30 European). Discussion items include: > flight planning, new diffused light source and its 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 Skype-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) Flight planning > II) New diffused light source and its 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 >
