Telecon tomorrow (Thursday) @ 5 pm Eastern time

Hi all,

Telecon tomorrow (May 16 in North America, May 17 in Australia) at the regular time: 5 pm Eastern (2 pm Pacific, 11 am Hawaii, 23.00 European, 7 am Eastern Australia). Outdoor drop testing pole base setup is completed, mounts for the Hamamatsu windowless PDs have arrived, and lots more new updates on AIFCOMSS station-keeping prediction/simulation software. More discussion items for tomorrow's telecon include: flight/telescope plans and tests; construction and lab tests of the new gondola/payload; light sources and light source modelling; goniometric and pre- and post-flight calibration; propulsion work; nanosat bus and payload solid models; computing / website / TWiki forums and e-mails; grant applications; and recap of schedules. I'll send an update with a bunch of recent photos, etc, before the telecon tomorrow.

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 (5 pm Eastern, 2 pm Pacific, etc).

4) If there is any trouble, or if you don't get a Skype-call for some reason and would like to join, please just send me an e-mail (jalbert@uvicNOSPAMPLEASE.ca).

Here's the tentative agenda:

I) Flight & telescope plans, and upcoming tests

II) Construction, drop tests, and other tests of the new gondola and payload

III) Diffused light source and its modelling, pre- and post-flight calibration, and goniometric calibrations

IV) Solid modelling

V) Computing/website, including recent flight control and simulation progress

VI) Grant applications

VII) AOB

Talk to you all tomorrow, thanks!!!

justin

-- jalbert - 2019-05-15

Hi all!

Apologies for the delay! -- here's the quick update on ALTAIR balloon work over the past 2 weeks, plus a reminder of the telecon in 2 hours from now:

The pole base setup for the ALTAIR outdoor drop testing that we will do this summer is now completed and installed in its location:

Here it is under construction a week and a half ago:

and here it is when student Logan MacKay (in the photo) and I just finished constructing it this past Wednesday:

I installed it just after we completed it a week ago. We're planning to use it to do an initial drop test with a dummy payload next week.

The Thorlabs SM1AD14 mounts for the Hamamatsu windowless S2386-8K photodiodes arrived, and those PDs fit perfectly into it -- here are photos of an SM1AD14 with an S2386-8K mounted in it:

Front view: Rear view:

In order to mount one of those onto the in-flight 2" ID integrating spheres, the mount itself will be lathed down and then will need to be glued onto a sphere. (Note that the OSI Optoelectronics UV-015 PDs are smaller and fit within our 1/2" OD Thorlabs mounts, that then fit into the 1/2" ID sphere mounts that we have always been using, but the Hamamatsu S2386-8K's are larger [14 mm OD] and thus there's no way to fit them into a 1/2" ID sphere mount.) To ensure that lathing the outer diameter of a SM1AD14 mount down will not be a problem, I asked Mark Lenckowski to lathe one of them down to 18 mm OD, and he did that with no problem at all -- here's the result:

Andrew Macdonald in the UVic phys & astro electronics shop is now testing the new precision photodiode amplifier boards together with the OSI and Hamamatsu photodiodes.

The survey-tripod-mounted device to cross-check yaw-pitch-roll information from the gondola (e.g., on days before/after flights) is also constructed now, thanks to Mark Lenckowski -- photo at:

and all that remains to be done is to finish the small fitting between the device and the bottom of the payload. The purchased hardware in it includes both the survey tripod (http://www.cpotools.com/cst-berger-60-alwi20-o-aluminum-tripod-with-quick-release--orange-/cstn60-alwi20-o,default,pd.html), two adjustable angle mounts (http://www.thorlabs.com/thorproduct.cfm?partnumber=AP180), and a rotation mount (https://www.thorlabs.com/thorproduct.cfm?partnumber=RP01). That last fitting to attach (temporarily, pre- or post-flight) the upper adjustable angle mount to the payload landing gear has been started and will be completed here in the next couple weeks.

We're currently revising the draft initial contractual agreement from our colleagues at Globalstar Canada regarding 2 initial SPOT Trace devices (and their service plans) for the educational side-project for the upcoming NATO SPS application, in which classrooms in elementary and high schools could launch company-donated SPOT Traces using party balloons (or a more environmentally-friendly version thereof), and track them to learn more about winds at different levels in Earth's atmosphere.

Houman will send Cordell and/or us updated sections of his master's thesis soon -- that information will be extremely useful to us going forward. Also, Susana and Nathan, it would be very helpful for us all to get the JHU students' final writeup when you have a chance.

Next grant applications will be a NATO "Science for Peace and Security" application, together with Australian colleague partners.

Our next telecon is in 2 hours from now (see below for Skype instructions).

Cheers, talk in two hours! -- thanks all!

justin

-- jalbert - 2019-05-16