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Satellite Tool Kit

Astrobotic — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:04:25 -0700

Satellite Tool Kit

Astrobotic is broadly applying Satellite Tool Kit as gold-standard software for design and optimization of our Tranquility Trek. The generosity of AGI's STK gift is only exceeded by their hospitality at last week's user conference. Thank you, AGI. Pictured left to right
are: Paul Graziani (President and CEO, AGI), Alastair Firth (CMU BS ECE '10), Jonathan Bidwell (CMU MS HCI), Dan Kane (former VP, AGI)

From AstroboticBlogPhotos

LunaTrex AGI Conference update - Joseph Gangestad

LunaTrex — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:13:52 -0700

With the recent announcement of AGI as one of the Google Lunar X PRIZE's Preferred Partners, LunaTrex had the opportunity to two representatives, Joseph Gangestad and Jeffrey Onken of Orbit Frontiers LLC, to the AGI Users' Conference in Schaumburg, Illinois last week. LunaTrex would like to personally thank AGI and it's CEO, Paul Graziani, for their generous offer to join the GLXP effort and help bring us all a little bit closer to the Moon. We also wish to extend a welcome to the two new teams that were announced at the AGI Conference, Independence-X and Omega Envoy; with every passing day GLXP grows into a more amazing and eclectic experience.

LunaTrex had the opportunity at the AGI Conference to experience first-hand the power of AGI's technology, including it's centerpiece software package STK and many other extraordinary technologies. Nearly every major space mission today uses some component of AGI's technology, and AGI's flexible licensing policies are sure to make STK a competitive option as LunaTrex moves forward with its operations architecture. AGI and all of the conference attendees were enthusiastic about GLXP, and LunaTrex made many exciting contacts...and in between sessions we even managed to squeeze in an interview with Will Pomerantz (looking forward to seeing that on the Launch Pad, Will!). We were honored to have the opportunity to hear speak in person Capt. Alan Bean—pilot, artist, astronaut, and 4th man to walk on the Moon. His exceptional and optimistic message about man's future in space and our responsibility to safeguard our own "Garden of Eden" here on Earth resonates with the GLXP's and Team LunaTrex's goals of expanding the frontiers of human experience beyond our own planet in an environmental and economically responsible fashion. With this growing field of both Preferred Partners and official teams, things are certainly looking up!

Best,

Joseph Gangestad
President, Orbit Frontiers LLC
Team LunaTrex

Robert Zimmerman presents America's First Half Century in Space: Where the Future Began, October 25th, 2008

JURBAN — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:08:30 -0700

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Historical Electronics Museum (HEM) are proud to present award winning author and lecturer Robert Zimmerman as he traces the first 50 years of NASA. Mr. Zimmerman has authored four well received books on space exploration and written for, among others, Natural History, Air & Space Magazine, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, The Science Channel, The Sciences, Invention & Technology, and American History. His newest book out now, The Universe in a Mirror, the Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It, tells the story of the men and women who conceived, built, and saved the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Topic:
America's First Half Century in Space: Where the Future Began

Speaker:
Robert Zimmerman

Date:
October 25, 2008

Time:
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Social Hour
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM: Dinner
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM: Presentation

Location:
Historical Electronics Museum
1745 West Nursery Road
Linthicum, Maryland 21090
410-765-0230
http://www.hem-usa.org

Cost:
IEEE or HEM Members: $30
Non-members: $35
Children 12 or under: $15

Checks should be made payable to the Historical Electronics Musuem.
Checks are due at the museum by October 15, 2008.
Proceeds benefit the Historical Electronics Museum.

Send checks to:
Historical Electronics Museum
P.O. Box 1693
MS 4015
Baltimore, MD 21203
Attn: NASA Anniversary

Include with your checks an email address and/or a phone number.

To register by e-mail:
specialevents.hem@gmail.com

Dinner Menu includes:
Beef
Chicken
Pasta
Salad & Breadsticks
Vegetable of the Day
Soda/Beer/Wine
Desserts

Dinner will be catered by the Olive Grove Restaurant.

For more information about this event:
Anne Mech
anne.mech@ngc.com
410-765-0230

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Abstract:

The history of the first fifty years of NASA is the history of the first fifty years of space exploration. Though the United States got a slow start in the first five years after Sputnik, it soon surged ahead and has set the pace for practically all space exploration since. Along the way, however, NASA's space program experienced many ups and downs. The 1960s was a time of triumph and success, followed by the 1970s and 1980s, a period of both decline and innovation. Then came the 1990s with its resurgance and growth, followed by the 2000s, when all things are possible and the future never looked brighter.

In his lecture Robert Zimmerman will give a broad outline of this history, illustrating the differences between the good and bad times and how those differences can be used as a lesson for the future.

Biography:

Robert Zimmerman is a well known and respected space historian and author.
He also wrote a weekly UPI column which can be found by doing a Google for "Zimmerman bibliography" and click on "A Zimmerman Bibliography". Mr.
Zimmerman is also an award winning author. His new book is now out, “THE UNIVERSE IN A MIRROR: THE SAGA OF THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE AND THE VISIONARIES WHO BUILT IT” is published by Princeton University Press. The book tells the poignant tale of the men and women behind the telescope, and how many had to sacrifice careers and family to get it built. It also describes in detail the importance of Hubble both scientifically and culturally. More than any other instrument sent into space, the Hubble Space Telescope reshaped the human perception of our place in the universe. Robert’s book “LEAVING EARTH: Space Stations, Rival Superpower, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel” is a must read! His work is published regularly in such magazines as ASTRONOMY, THE SCIENCES, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, INVENTION & TECHNOLOGY, FORTUNE, AD ASTRA, AMERICAN HISTORY, STARDATE, and many other major magazines. In 2000 he was co-winner of the David N. Schramm Award, given by the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society for Science Journalism. Before writing his newest book, LEAVING EARTH, Mr. Zimmerman authored two books, GENESIS, THE STORY OF APOLLO 8, published by Four Walls Eight Windows in 1998, describes the family and political tale behind the first human journey to another world and THE CHRONOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DISCOVERIES IN SPACE (published by Oryx Press, now Greenword Publishing Group 2000). This is a detailed reference book describing what was accomplished on every space mission beginning in October 1957 with Sputnik and continuing through December 1999. Mr.
Zimmerman also won an Emmy Award for the best space history for the general public by the American Astronautical Society awarded on Nov. 16, 2004.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Directions to Historical Electronics Musuem:

The Historical Electronics Museum (HEM) is located near BWI airport. The address for the HEM is:

Historical Electronics Museum
1745 W. Nursery Road
Linthicum, MD 21090
410-765-0230
http://www.hem-usa.org

The directions for the HEM are as follows:

From Baltimore:
Route 295 South (Baltimore Washington Parkway) Take West Nursery Road exit, turn left at light and go through four stoplights.
Museum is on the left, next to the Marriott Hotel.

From Annapolis:
Route 97 North
Take BWI Airport exit. Right at first light onto Aviation Boulevard.
Turn right at sixth light onto Elkridge Landing Road.
Turn right at second light onto West Nursery Road.
Museum is on the right, next to the Marriott Hotel.

From Washington:
Route 295 North (Baltimore Washington Parkway) Take West Nursery Road exit, stay right on ramp.
Go through three stoplights.
Museum is on the left, next to the Marriott Hotel.

From Route 195:
Route 170 North (Camp Meade Road) towards Linthicum.
Left at first light onto Elm Road.
Left at light onto Elkridge Landing Road.
Right onto West Nursery Road.
Museum is on the right next to the Marriott Hotel.

From Interstate 95:
Exit onto 195 East to 295 North and follow directions from Washington
(above)

Expedition 18 lift off

acsete — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:01:58 -0700

Early this morning, Expedition 18 successfully lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft, carrying U.S. astronaut E. Michael Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and spaceflight participant Richard Garriott towards the International Space Station, is scheduled for docking to the Zarya module on 14 Oct 2008 around 9:30 UTC. NASA TV will provide live coverage of the docking event.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Richard Garriott - son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott - has a tight schedule carrying out scientifc research and educational projects. Amongst his plans is to have live amateur radio contacts with various schools around the world using his amateur radio callsign W5KWQ. His stay on the space station also coincides with the annual Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) event giving scouts around the world an opportunity to talk with astronauts onboard the station. Something that makes Garriott's trip particularly interesting for us is his plan to turn on the on-board slow scan television equipment that will perform automatic image transmissions in Robot-36 mode.

While slow scan television is not a technically feasible option for a Lunar mission nowadays (despite the fact that it was used by many of the early Lunar missions) this event will provide an excellent opportunity to test some of our early prototypes for ground equipment using real signals from space. The International Space Station is a very fast moving object and successful reception of the images will require proper tracking with directional antennas and active compensation for the Doppler shift, caused by the high relative velocity between the space station and the receiver on Earth.

There are many external factors that might prevent this experiment from being successful. The most significant is whether the slow scan television equipment will be turned on while the space station passes over our ground station and this is, of course, out of our control. In either case, we are very excited and are looking forward to this event.

Field experiment

Astrobotic — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:14:16 -0700

Field experiment

Field experiments are the Astrobotic way. Experiments exhibit system performance beyond the sum of component performances. Good experiments synergize hardware, software and operations with disciplined testing and measured results.
Good experiments ground a team in reality. At some point the lander departure, 500-meter trek, remote operations and data transmission become routine, space-relevant and rock-solid. Routine, space-relevant and rock-solid are still a long way off.

Transceiver modules for the L and S bands

acsete — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:32:04 -0700

The RFX1200 and RFX2400 daughterboards provide complete radio frequency transceiver interfaces for the Universal Software Radio Peripheral in the L and S bands. The receivers have an AGC range of 70dB. The transmitter output is around 200mW for the RFX1200 and 50mW for the RFX2400. The transmitter and receiver frequencies can be controlled separately (split mode) and the boards are also capable of full duplex operation.

1/2 Gram Video Cameras

rpspeck — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:02:30 -0700

We are working at the moment to integrate a ½ Gram (!) Video Camera (with near Broadcast image quality) into our 25 gram “Space Probe”. We have an adequate, similar mass video transmitter. This probe was originally planned as an “FAA Exempt”, “Weather Probe”, capable of being guided into a selected portion of a tornado or other violent storm system. With no customers for this experimental system, we are reconfiguring it as a “PicoSat” or Pico Spacecraft. It will probably be the first of our systems to approach the Moon, as less than a kilogram in LEO would allow acceleration of this guided probe to Lunar Orbit.

Video sensors massing no more than a gram are capable of delivering the GLXP required HDTV images. The required optics will weigh much more than this, but possibly still only a few grams. As mentioned earlier, the minimum mass necessary to WIN the Google Lunar X PRIZE has yet to be determined!

The ½ gram camera is certainly able to serve as a sun and star tracker, with a small cluster covering the entire sky. I will return to the navigation topic soon, but have been working to integrate images with these BLOG texts, since that makes them more interesting and understandable.

It has been noted by some that existing “Star Trackers” could serve for Lunar navigation, and this is true. However, the “Proven” units mass 2 to 5 kg, use 5 to 20 watts of power, and have significant stabilization and glare problems. (Data from “SMAD”, Third Edition). These are not things one wants to mount on top of a helmet! More pointedly, these are expensive enough that they are not used without very good reasons, and have never been used on very small satellites (like CubeSats, whose total mass is less than the listed star sensors.)

It is a good idea to rethink the systems we need to use, because the “Proven” units may be far from optimum and may even hide operational realities behind old habits. I won't consider using the 8088 processor for my spacecraft (the engine of the 1981 IBM PC and the Space Shuttle's main computer). I prefer the fractional gram, up to 50 MIPS, low power processors I am using.

Team LunaTrex to attend ISPCS and AMSAT

LunaTrex — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:25:21 -0700

Team LunaTrex will be sending Mary Cafasso, Greg Allison, Rick Wills, and Pete Bitar to the International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) in Las Cruces, NM, October 22-23, and hopefully will attend the NG Lunar Lander Challenge at the Las Cruces Airport (hopefully, moved from Holloman AFB) on the 24-25th.

Joseph Gangestad, Jeff Onken, and Bill Brown will represent LunaTrex at the AMSAT (Amateur Satellite) Conference in Atlanta, GA, on October 24-25.

If any of you are at those conference, look for us - we'd love to chat.

Clear Skies,
Pete

Threaded inserts

Astrobotic — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:22:23 -0700

Threaded inserts

A composite honeycomb layup cannot be threaded. However, it is necessary to thread screws into composites, so threaded inserts are glued into oversize holes that are drilled through the composite. An insert's threads are strong, so an insert can receive forces from a screw.
The insert distributes the forces from a screw, through the insert, through an epoxy glue, and into the composite. The installation procedure must preclude air bubbles from the epoxy glue. These test samples are sectioned to check for embedded bubbles.

From AstroboticBlogPhotos

How can SPACE tech inspire science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) motivation and entrepreneurship?

JURBAN — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:16:32 -0700

This past month , I have been exercising deep 'meditational introspection' about how space technology can motivate science, technology, engineering, and math STEM proficiency and competitivness as well as entrepreneurship among underserved and disadvantaged youth around the world.

I have visited several public schools, STEM conferences, and have begun going into inner cities in the United States to ask youth about their opinions.

As a result, I generated the following top 5 methods that can motivate as well as inspire STEM proficiency and space related entrepreneurship among youth through formal and informal learning techniques:

1. Map math and science exercises to space related technology in order to reinforce problem based learning (PBL) and help
increase science and math test scores.

2. Develop culturally competent and engaging multi-media (e.g., movies, video games, music, etc.) that motivates youth from
various cultures about space science and technology.

3. Encourage youth to seek mentorship in order to create space related businesses that contribute to the overall
space industry.

4. Conduct community grass roots campaigns and town hall meetings to promote the space industry and discuss
opportunities.

5. Of course, engage students and youth to participate on Google Lunar X PRIZE teams.

Ok, enough of my ideas. How do you think SPACE tech inspire science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) motivation and entrepreneurship?

Dr. J