[Robotgroup] Fwd: Re: FastTrack Update

Mon Jul 14 08:35:24 PDT 2008

Funny how projects drop into your lap. Anybody familiar with 
radiation-grade AVRs and gryoscopes? :-) Actually, the team prefers to 
use hardcoded logic instead of microprocessors whenever possible for 
obvious radiation reasons. Just makes it simpler, but I don't know if 
it's going to be fast enough for millisecond-by-millisecond 
stabilization and so on.

- Bryan

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Re: FastTrack Update
Date: Sunday 13 July 2008
From: Kevin Myrick <kemyrick at kemcom.net>
To: Kevin Myrick <kemyrick at kemcom.net>, Kevin Myrick 
<kemyrick at kemcom.net>, Adam Hugo <sirachman at yahoo.com>, Benjamin Swem 
<b.swem at rsevproject.com>, Steven Swem <s.swem at sweminator.com>, Tater 
<tater1337 at yahoo.com>, Lendz Elliot <lendz123 at gmail.com>, Tareq Saif 
<ace68215 at gmail.com>, Castory Ntullu <cnlizget_24 at yahoo.com>, feisal 
ally <feisal_ally at yahoo.com>, Gilles Poirey <gilles.poirey at gmail.com>, 
Giulio <pegi70 at hotmail.it>, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com>, Sayandeep 
Khan <quest4thedeepblue at yahoo.com>

Hello FastTrack Group!
I am working the next 4 weeks during our scheduled meeting time.  If you 
can, please continue to use this time to collaborate with each other on 
the project.  I will be in touch with everyone by email or chat later 
today or during the week to get status and prepare a status report for 
everyone.

This week Tater was going to provide some preliminary plans for the 
Launch Vehicle, Ben was looking into the structural configuration of 
the Lunar Lander and was going to prepare an illustration, and Bryan 
was looking into avionics, guidance and attitude control systems.  
Gilles and Giulio also provided input this week on communications and 
engines, and may be participating in the meeting.  I hope you will all 
be able to find each other's Yahoo IDs, or use this email to send them 
to everyone so you can join the meeting.

I look forward to catching up on this weeks progress later this 
afternoon.
Kevin

---- Kevin Myrick <kemyrick at kemcom.net> wrote:
>
> We met Sunday 7/6 at 2pm pacific time and discussed the project.  Ben 
Swem, Bryan Bishop, Debby Morrow and I participated.
> 
> We discussed funding, budget, the requirements for the structure of 
the Lander and the flight control subsystem.  Ben will create some new 
drawings based on our discussion, and Bryan will start working on a 
plan for the flight control subsystem, which will include guidance, 
navigation and attitude control.
> 
> We are still planning on using a micro-launch system of some sort, and 
Tater is working on preliminary specs for a launch vehicle.
> 
> One change from what we discussed in the meeting, total payload will 
be 300lbs, including Lander and transport stage.  We are basing the 
lander on the Small Lander from the small spacecraft systems design 
described here;
> 
http://technology.arc.nasa.gov/news/more/SystemsEngineering&Integration.pdf
> 
> It looks like this vehicle will spend a lot of time in our radiation 
belts and in the general radiation environment of space beyond the 
earth's magnetic fields, so we will be using old style electronic 
circuits where ever possible, no integrated circuit chips.  Our control 
systems will be designed with the intellegence built into the 
circuitry, not programmed.
> 
> We will also be working from the requirements developed earlier and 
posted in the lander section here;
> http://www.kemcom.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=196
> 
> with alterations to account for the smaller design.
> 
> Next meeting same time this week, Sunday at 2pm Pacific, unless I hear 
from some of you with time conflicts, then we will work on a time that 
works best for the needs of the meeting.
> 
> 
> ---- Kevin Myrick <kemyrick at kemcom.net> wrote:
> >
> > Hello FastTrack Team,
> > Some of you are aware that we are having weekly meetings of the 
groups working on our business startup, Sponsorship, and the technical 
managers for the GLXP team.  We are at the point now where we will need 
to have weekly meetings of the FastTrack team to coordinate our 
activities.  I would like to start this Sunday afternoon, around 2pm 
pacific, 9pm GMT, for about an hour.  We can use Yahoo for our chat, 
please let me know if you can make that time, or if you have an 
alternate meeting time to suggest.  I want to meet with everyone who is 
available Sunday, and if we need to we can work out another time for 
next week.  I will provide a project description for everyone online at 
the meeting.
> > 
> > Tater is working on the final design specs for the launch vehicle, 
focused on launching a 300 pound lunar lander either to LEO for a slow 
spiral to the moon, or on an escape trajectory that goes straight to 
the moon.
> > 
> > I look forward to getting everyone elses contributions setup.
> > Kevin
> > 
> > ---- Kevin Myrick <kemyrick at kemcom.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hello FastTrack Team!
> > > 
> > > I have had a few discussions about the details of the FastTrack 
mission.  The lander capabilities will be limited to allow for faster 
development and simpler operations.  It will not include the ability to 
be a rover.  The landers payload capabilities will be limited to what 
can be done with no moving parts, a single board computer and 
electronic sensors, including at least a digital camera.
> > > 
> > > I have heard from Giulio, Tater and Ben regarding Communications, 
Launch Rocket and Lander structural design.  I need to hear from the 
Gadgeteers team about the lander subsystems.  I want to be able to 
create illustrations of what we are doing by the end of this month, 
which will be about one year from the time we need to launch, give or 
take a week.
> > > 
> > > I will be in touch, please feel free to post on the forum in the 
FastTrack section.
> > > Kevin
> > > 
> > 
> 

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