Micro-Satellite Technologies Lab at PSU
Pictures from tour of CubeSAT Lab at Portland State University
00:35:27 Robert: https://public.ksc.nasa.gov/LspEducation/LSP-Education/CubeSat
00:35:55 Robert: https://www.nasa.gov/content/cubesat-launch-initiative-resources
00:36:24 James Newton: Blocks are 660 feet on each side
00:37:24 James Newton: The size is drawn from one of their religious texts.
00:37:40 James Newton: Everything in Salt Lake is based on the LDS religion.
00:41:33 James Newton: Didn’t I already give the wirebot presentation?
00:41:38 Steve K’s 2nd PC: Not yet. You said you’d do it and I scheduled you for next month. You sent me the presentation to look over. It’s pretty cool so I know the Society will enjoy it.
00:41:40 Robert: https://thesubtimes.com/2022/05/10/national-drive-electric-steilacoom-festival-2022/
00:45:58 James Newton: Interesting path solving system:
00:47:22 James Newton: Another cool link since last meeting: Using a 3D printer (which is a robot really) to print a robot, which the printer then activates to make a sandwich:
00:53:19 Robert: https://toorcamp.toorcon.net/
00:54:20 Robert: ToorCamp, the American hacker camp, first “launched” at the Titan-1 Missile Silo in Washington State in 2009. The second and third ToorCamp happened in 2012 and 2014 on the beautiful Washington Coast. For the past 2 events (2016 and 2018) and upcoming 2022 are now at the Doe Bay Resort, SAN JUAN ISLANDS, WA
JULY 13-17, 2022 https://toorcamp.toorcon.net/
00:55:25 Richard Greenway: Reminds me of this joke that I know I heard in High School: https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/4nc2r4/a_toothpaste_factory_had_a_problem/
00:55:38 James Newton: So we are looking at the GregShu screen? Is that being recorded?
00:55:56 Steve K’s 2nd PC: Yes.
01:08:39 James Newton: Another cool link for people to explore on their own time. Shakey has been a great love of mine since I was a kid, so I decided to start a page on it and collecting resources about it. So many algorithms we should know about where developed way back then. A*, STRIPS, Hough xform, etc..
http://techref.massmind.org/Techref/robot/shakey.htm
01:23:26 Richard Greenway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW6Vx2g9OCI
01:25:23 Richard Greenway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTOFFN_0idA
01:26:52 Andrew Greenberg: Thanks! Just getting organized…
01:45:32 James Newton: Throw yourself at the horizon… then miss.
01:46:53 James Newton: The other coke can challenge! Putting a coke can in orbit.
01:51:18 Steve K’s 2nd PC: That is awesome!
01:54:45 James Newton: So the cubesats usually deploy /after/ the big sat is already away safe?
01:56:53 Jordan Wenta: How do you go about planning for the trajectory and speed?
01:56:59 Jordan Wenta: My mistake on the mute.
01:59:27 Jordan Wenta: YouTube it, you’ll be fine.
02:02:08 James Newton: Portland: Keeping it weird! Nice…
02:03:53 Jordan Wenta: I’m guessing it’s coming, but what micro-controller are you using?
02:04:18 Bob: Making it survivable with shake, rattle and roll seems like a bit of a challenge for students.
02:05:04 James Newton: Because OSHPark?
02:05:42 Jordan Wenta: Processing in here.
02:06:53 James Newton: Connector damage on backplane is a common problem.
02:07:19 Jordan Wenta: Ah yes, the ole Star Tracker.
02:07:24 Jordan Wenta: Throw that in the middle.
02:08:27 Jordan Wenta: Ah, the frame acts as a giant heatsink.
02:08:46 James Newton: And that card clamp transfers the heat? Oh… through the ground plane.
02:09:53 James Newton: “I’m not clumsy, it was a vibration test!”
02:11:19 Jordan Wenta: just like Lt’s
02:12:07 James Newton: Because it’s Portland… weird color.
02:14:38 James Newton: So it’s really not just building a cubesat, it’s building a class on how to build cubesats.
02:16:21 Greg S: The final boards are “professionally built”. What does that mean?
02:17:14 Doug Bell: How does cooling work while testing?
02:17:58 Jordan Wenta: How do you make sure your SDR communication is secure? What’s stopping me?
02:21:26 James Newton: That is cool!
02:22:36 Steve Kaehler: How many Cubesats have your students launched?
02:25:48 Doug Bell: We aren’t all hams, so SDR is Software Defined Radio.
02:25:48 Jordan Wenta: GNSS-SDR, I have used this before! you can use it to track the ISS!
02:26:39 James Newton: So the mag system can de-spin the other ones slowly over time?
02:27:01 Jordan Wenta: Ah you skipped right over that angular momentum thing that sounded really interesting. I was wondering how you stop it from spiraling out of control
02:28:51 James Newton: These SatNOGS have to physically move to track the Sat right?
02:29:45 James Newton: Making a low cost actuator for a sat antenna was a project I worked on a while ago… we did not succeed. It’s hard.
02:31:07 Greg S: How much data can you transmit to the Sat in one pass?
02:32:59 James Newton: The wife and I are invested in Astra… hoping they pull through.
02:34:48 James Newton: Always getting sun!
02:35:06 Jordan Wenta: leave it to the PNW
02:35:06 James Newton: Like the asteroids… almost always in the sun.
02:35:46 James Newton: They did that just to get out of the rain… (I can joke about it, I used to live in Oregon, where people don’t die of old age, they rust to death)
02:40:27 James Newton: Wonderful presentation!
02:40:46 Robert: Do you allow non-Portland State University students to get involved in this program? How about if they live out of state, like a Tacoma Community College Student? How would they get involved if they can not participate live?
02:42:08 James Newton: Can you do a quick overview of the orientation system? e.g. does the mag system de-spin the gyros? Or is there another way to keep them from maxing out?
02:42:23 Doug Bell: How does the helical antenna on the satellite deploy?
02:42:54 James Newton: Right, so this is practice for the next one with the camera.
02:43:58 Robert: What part of the project can an out of state student participate in?
02:45:03 James Newton: The #1 issue we have in the industry is employees who are afraid to fail. It’s nice to hear that you support experiential learning because there is a LOT of failure in that.
02:45:25 James Newton: Fail fast!
02:46:05 James Newton: http://techref.massmind.org/techref/iterative.htm
Fail: Expect to fail, it leads to experience, shows you care and are motivated.
First: Get failure over with by taking on the hardest parts first.
Fast: Make small, incremental, steps towards the larger goal, testing after each step to look for failures
Fix: Once you have experience, you can fix any failures.
02:46:08 Greg S: Will the camera resolution of the 400km selfie be sufficient to identify student formations in a playing field?
02:46:40 James Newton: “That pixel is ME!”
02:47:44 Doug Bell: How will you get a real time picture using the helical antenna? Do you depend upon tumbling?
02:48:09 James Newton: “I’m in that pixel!”
02:50:09 James Newton: Totally amazing!
02:50:25 James Newton: Excellent presentation!
02:50:57 Andrew Greenberg: adg4@pdx.edu