Send your Bio into space, yes for real (Developer Meeting in April)

[JonathanCline]

I saw a very interesting & amazing lecture recently about cubesat: 10
cm^3, 1 kg satellite projects. A couple people on this list mentioned
it would be neat to try biology-experiments-in-space. This is
apparently very possible these past few years, using this very small
electronics+hardware chassis which are regularly launched into orbit.
BTW they used similar technology (hardware platform & solar panels) to
host a remote monitoring project in Antarctica, so that might have a
DIY Bio crossover as well (a Bio microsphere in a remotely monitored
climate for example). The design specs are online:
http://cubesat.atl.calpoly.edu/pages/documents/developers.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat

The cubesat group ( http://cubesat.atl.calpoly.edu/ ) is apparently
having a meeting next month on the central california coast at Cal
Poly State (in collaboration with Stanford). Details below. I saw a
brief summary of some of these projects, and they are very neat. In
the "old days" such a project might take years to get into space; now
apparently they only take months, and are within fundable range. At
least one of the projects has included microbiology.


Details below. I'm not associated w/ these projects, only passing it
on. Maybe professional Syn Bio types might want to hit this up.

## Jonathan Cline
## jcl...@ieee.org
## Mobile: +1-805-617-0223
########################



2009 CubeSat Developers' Workshop

Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

April 22-25

Agenda

Full agenda coming soon! Look for an additional morning session on
Saturday, April 25th for group discussions on CubeSat development.

Cost

$50.00 for Students

$160.00 for Industry/Advisors

Registration

Please fill out the Registration Form.

Online registration will close on Friday, April 17th.

Presenters

Abstracts were due Friday, February 13th. Presenters will be notified
shortly.

Poster Session

Poster submission closed Friday, February 13th. Poster presenters will
be notified shortly.

Lodging

For your convenience we have created a List of Local Hotels. We have
made arrangements with some hotels to ensure that you have a room and
at a good price. You must book your hotel at least one month before
your arrival in order to receive the group rate.

Airports

We have created a List of Local and Major Airports closest to Cal
Poly. San Luis Obispo (SBP) has a small airport as does nearby Santa
Maria (SMX). Los Angeles (LAX) and San Jose (SJX) are the nearest
major airports.

Questions?

Please send an email to cubesat....@gmail.com and we will get
back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!


2.1 Interface
The Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD) is Cal Poly’s
standardized CubeSat
deployment system. It is capable of carrying three standard CubeSats
and serves as
the interface between the CubeSats and LV. The P-POD is a rectangular
box with a
door and a spring mechanism. The P-POD is made up of anodized
aluminum. CubeSats
slide along a series of rails during ejection into orbit. CubeSats
must be compatible with
the P-POD to ensure safety and success of the mission, by meeting the
requirements
outlined in this document. The P-POD is backward compatible, and any
CubeSat
developed within the design specification of CDS rev. 9 and later,
will not have
compatibility issues. Developers are encouraged to design to the most
current CDS to
take full advantage of the P-POD features.

3. CubeSat Specification

3.1 Dimensional and Mass Requirements
CubeSats are cube shaped picosatellites with a nominal length of 100
mm per side.
Dimensions and features are outlined in the CubeSat Specification
Drawing (Appendix
A). General features of all CubeSats are:
3.1.1 Each single CubeSat may not exceed 1 kg mass.
3.1.2 Center of mass must be within 2 cm of its geometric center.
3.1.3 Double and triple configurations are possible. In these cases
masses 2 kg or 3
kg respectively are allowable. Only the dimensions in the Z axis
change (227
mm for doubles and 340.5 mm for triples). X and Y dimensions remain
the
same.

[Bryan Bishop]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 5:12 PM, JonathanCline <jnc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I saw a very interesting & amazing lecture recently about cubesat: 10
> cm^3, 1 kg satellite projects.  A couple people on this list mentioned

Yes, cubesats are really interesting. There's also pingpongsats- ping
pong ball sized satellites :-). Can you fit an experiment in a ping
pong ball?

http://www.scienceprog.com/the-flying-ping-pong-ball-with-satellite-pongsat/
http://www.jpaerospace.com/pongsat/index.htm

"These ping pong ball ‘satellites’ are flown to the edge of space by
balloon or launched in sounding rockets. The PongSats are then
returned to the student."

http://www.airspacemag.com/need-to-know/NEED-smallsats.html
http://howtosplitanatom.com/news/sending-ping-pong-balls-into-space/

For other links related to do-it-yourself spacetech, see:
http://heybryan.org/bookmarks/bookmarks-old2/#32-top
http://heybryan.org/bookmarks/bookmarks-old2//Space/index.html#32
(but more available upon request- that's a very old dump)

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507