International Space Apps Challenge - 20/21st April

[Kristian Grayson]

This may be of interest to many of you - held from 20-21st April and the Melbourne event will be at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre at Strathmore Secondary College (for further details about the local event see (http://spaceappschallenge.org/location/melbourne/).

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The International Space Apps Challenge is an international mass collaboration focused on space exploration that takes place over 48-hours in cities around the world.  The event embraces collaborative problem solving with a goal of producing relevant open-source solutions to address global needs applicable to both life on Earth and life in space.

NASA is leading this global collaboration along with a number of additional government collaborators and 100+ local partner organisations.

This year, we're extremely excited to announce more than 50 challenges to be solved as part of the 2013 Space Apps Challenge!  These challenges are designed to serve as an inspiration for your work and as a platform for the global community to work together.  For that reason, we encourage you to join with others around the world during the event to create a collaborative solution.  The challenges fall under the categories of software, hardware, citizen science and data visualisation.

For a full list of challenges and further details, please visit the International Space Apps Challenge website:  http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenges/

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Registration and participation is free!

For more information and to register for the event, please visit the official website:  http://spaceappschallenge.org/

Join us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please feel free to share this event with your family, friends and colleagues - the more the merrier!

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Have questions?  Feel free to contact our local leads:

Canberra - Naomi Mathers - naomi....@anu.edu.au

Adelaide - Sumen Rai - sumen...@gmail.com

Brisbane - Stratos Patsikatheodorou - stratos.p@stratosaerospace.org

Melbourne - Cynthia Chen - cynthi...@ayaa.com.au

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[April Staines]

This looks really interesting.   I see that there is also a category to produce 3D printable items.  

Though Im still trying to understand how this works.

can one just rock up and take it all in?

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April Staines - Melbourne AU

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[Andy Gelme]

hi April,

On 10 April 2013 10:26, Kristian Grayson <kristia...@gmail.com> wrote:

Have questions?  Feel free to contact our local leads:

Melbourne - Cynthia Chen - cynthi...@ayaa.com.au

On 2013-04-10 13:44 , April Staines wrote:

This looks really interesting.   I see that there is also a category to produce 3D printable items.  

Though Im still trying to understand how this works.

can one just rock up and take it all in ?

It is probably best that we direct our questions to Cynthia Chen (CCed).

Hopefully, a number of CCHS members will self-organize (via the email list) and drop into the VSSEC on April 20th/21st.

- - - - - - - -

You may have noticed this particular challenge ... http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/ardusat

Jon Oxer has been working tirelessly on ArduSat Arduino hardware component(s) for many months now ... and I believe that Angus has also been helping out.  It is exciting stuff ...

   http://mirror.linux.org.au/linux.conf.au/2013/ogv/ArduSat_Open_Source_in_orbit.ogv
   http://www.freetronics.com/blogs/news/7356498-distributed-cache-ram-for-ardusat-nodes

I can't speak for (or accidentally commit) Jon to anything ... and I don't want to get any details wrong ...

So, if Jon has time (given that 10 days is very little notice) ... perhaps he might let us know if there can be any local participation / organization ... or whether that is simply not possible under the circumstances.

Another Melbourne hacker Phillip Stevens, who dropped by last night, is also contributing to the ArduSat project ...

   http://feilipu.posterous.com/ardusat-xramfs-prototyping

- - - - - - - -

As an aside, Phillip is running a Pozible campaign to create a better Arduino called "Goldilocks" based on an ATMega1284p, well-worth checking out ...

   http://feilipu.me/2013/03/08/goldilocks-1284p-arduino-uno-clone/

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[Kristian Grayson]

I don't know a whole lot about the event (I couldn't make it last year), so it is probably best to wait to hear back from Cynthia

However my understanding of the event is that it depends on what groups rock up and commit to undertaking particular challenges.  I think last year the Melbourne representation composed mainly of programmers who coded iPhone apps and that sort of thing, and I think the reason there wasn't so much hardware involvement in Melbourne was simply because very few people who volunteered for the event were comfortable taking on the hardware side of things.  But if a group of interested people (say from the hackerspace) were interested in getting involved in something hardware related, then that would guarantee there is something hardware/3D printer related to do...

...But Cynthia will know the details

I hope this kinda helps

Kristian

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[Luke Weston]

Ultimately, it's a two-day event, and there's only so much you can organise/research/specify/develop/test/document in two days. Hard to deliver anything good.

Some of the proposal specifications would take many months of development to do well.

Also, it's nearly impossible to do any development of hardware or anything physical with no funding, unlike software where the costs are essentially zero if you've got volunteer/hobbyist person-hours donated.

Didn't Mike Borthwick rock up there a year or two ago after we discussed this on the mailing list, only to find that it wasn't open to the public?

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[Kristian Grayson]

Obviously you would need to scale any project, hardware or otherwise, to the timeframe.  But that doesn't mean that it is impossible to do anything hardware related.  For example last year for the International Space Apps Challenge OpenROV designed a water sampling device for their system during the event (http://openrov.com/forum/topics/water-sampler) - not insanely complex but enough to design and build during the weekend and finish with a complete prototype.

Also - I assure you that this year it is definitely open to the public...

[April Staines]

OK so don't laugh,  but hardware...  are there any 3d printers on the space station?  We all have extensive experience,  perhaps we could design something capable of surviving a high g launch then work in zero g. I can imagine something like that would be useful for emergency parts,  and much more useful then designing a space toilet.

[Zac Watts]

See: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/nasa/3d-printers-to-build-nasas-spare-parts-rocket-engines-15146569

[Kristian Grayson]

Also this: http://www.madeinspace.us/

But I haven't seen any plastic-only printers considered for space, so maybe that could be something...

[April Staines]

OK, but is it open source? Plus the idea of making something portable yet durable would be useful for non space application

[Kristian Grayson]

Not to my knowledge, but they are mainly using 3D printing techniques with metals so I think they have more reason to protect the IP of their designs

But yeah a printer durable enough for surviving launch would have plenty of on-Earth applications.  With respect to the Space Apps Challenge it would probably make sense to pick a small sub-project to relate to this that could be achieved in a weekend, but I like the broader picture also.

I am just not 100% sure how the printers, particularly the 'Made in Space' one accounts for microgravity, given that I think it is a metal type printer based on FDM - it must require the print head to be close enough to the rest of the object being printed to provide direct adhesion, so that the lack of gravity doesn't interfere at all with operation

[April Staines]

If u think of the ordbot,  something like that could fold up, ... space hinge... ?

[Zac Watts]

Also something to consider: There are standardised rack sizes on the iss, the big cupboardy one is 2x1x0.5m ish and there are different standard drawers which can go into it. 

[Stuart Young]

There have been many "tests" of 3D printers using the so called "russian" method - basically inverting the printer so it is completely upside down. Most of the designs work, though some need slight design changes to the Z axis. There mustn't be any "floating" parts though, as simple movement could become a problem.

Layer adhesion is very important with 3D printers, so it's no real wonder why it works even with gravity pulling the object toward the nozzle (as in the so called "russian" method.

Note: Little bits of plastic floating around the ISS however could be a problem, as 3D printers can sometimes be messy (eg: failed prints, extrusion tests and thin hair-like bridges between parts of the print). The devices also use quite a bit of current (mainly if you add a heated bed), so power consumption would need to be considered as well.

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Cef

[Jonathan Oxer]

Hi Andy, Cynthia, et al,

On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 2:20 PM, Andy Gelme <an...@geekscape.org> wrote:

> You may have noticed this particular challenge ...
> http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/ardusat

...
> So, if Jon has time (given that 10 days is very little notice) ... perhaps
> he might let us know if there can be any local participation / organization
> ... or whether that is simply not possible under the circumstances.

I've been nuked on other projects recently, but I intend to go along
to VSSEC for at least part of the time and I'd definitely take ArduSat
hardware with me. I currently have three of the Payload Processor
Modules (one of the original prototype design, two of the final design
that will actually be going into orbit in August) and it may be
possible to rig them up so participants can run their code on real
ArduSat hardware. I could either stack them as a single mega-satellite
with 48 experiment MCUs, or I could set them up as three separate
satellites with 16 MCUs each. Unfortunately I don't have the
interesting bits of the payload here so either way I'll have to rig up
some sensor analogs to give participants something to talk to.

Cheers

Jon

[Clifford Heath]

On 10/04/2013, at 8:27 PM, Stuart Young <cef...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Note: Little bits of plastic floating around the ISS however could be a problem,

A lot of plastics have oily plasticisers and other compounds that would evaporate
in a vacuum, and are thus uncertifiable for space, since they could fog up other
equipment. Please consider…

Clifford Heath.

[Luke Weston]

"

Note: Little bits of plastic floating around the ISS however could be a problem, as 3D printers can sometimes be messy (eg: failed prints, extrusion tests and thin hair-like bridges between parts of the print). The devices also use quite a bit of current (mainly if you add a heated bed), so power consumption would need to be considered as well."

Also keep in mind that a 3D printer with a total power consumption of 200W or whatever for its heaters is pumping 200W out into the room, so that potentially needs to be factored in to the thermal management of the whole environment. Ideally you'd want to minimise it because increasing the heat load increases the amount of energy you need to spend cooling the whole environment (although sometimes you need to worry about heating it.) Also, you don't just plug your devices on the ISS into a 240VAC GPO. The secondary regulated power bus that supplies power to experiments and payload devices is actually something like 120V DC.

[Kristian Grayson]

A forwarded message from Cynthia (the Space Apps Challenge Melbourne organiser):

Hi everyone,

I've since emailed April, and would like to reiterate that it would be absolutely wonderful to have you join us this weekend!

The International Space Apps Challenge revolves around a number of challenges outlined by NASA, which can be found on the event's website here:  http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenges/

There are a number of hardware-related challenges, including ArduSat and a 3D printing challenge!

If you are unable to attend the entire event, I'd still love to welcome you along to the event if you'd like to visit the VSSEC facilities or take a look at what others are working on.  If you plan to do this, please still register for the event, here:  http://spaceappschallenge.org/location/melbourne/

This is just so I'm able to monitor numbers.  If you could please also send through a quick email so I know which day you'll be attending, I'll be able to organise catering accordingly.

In the mean time, please feel free to join our (somewhat quiet) conversation on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/spaceappschallengeaus/events

Look forward to seeing you soon!

Best wishes,

Cynthia