[Noisebridge-discuss] spacebridge? hackers(in)space?

Fri Dec 18 00:14:49 UTC 2009

Yay, I'll be there!

My friends at SETI and NASA said they plan to attend as well!

Ariel Waldman | digital anthropologist

[ http://arielwaldman.com | http://spacehack.org ]

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Mikolaj Habryn <dichro at rcpt.to> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 1:00 PM, Ariel Waldman <ariel at arielwaldman.com> wrote:
>> I would be so excited to have a "spacebridge" of sorts. I used to work
>> at NASA and created http://spacehack.org (a directory of ways to
>> participate in space exploration) after I left last year.
>
> Wow, that's fantastic :) Then I hereby declare the inaugural meeting
> of Spacebridge to be held at Noisebridge at 6pm this Sunday (agenda
> item 1 - entertain suggestions for a better name).
>
> I propose modest goals: I expect we'll have any number of interesting
> project ideas that could be usefully worked on by a group at
> Noisebridge, so let's just trot them out informally so we can see
> which ones gather enough collective enthusiasm for bringing us closer
> to our medium-term goal of crushing the visible universe beneath our
> booted heels. I'll bring beer.
>
> m.
>
>> I am new to hardware hacking, so I just got my arduino starter-kit and
>> was considering eventually doing the "spaceduino" project you describe
>> with it.
>>
>> I'm up for meeting up Sunday afternoon/early evening. If we confirm
>> meeting up, I could try and invite some of my friends who are in the
>> small spacecraft division at NASA. A lot of them got together this
>> past weekend to do a NASA Hackathon and they often host "tiny hack"
>> days in the south bay, so they'd probably be into it.
>>
>>
>> Ariel Waldman | digital anthropologist
>>
>> [ http://arielwaldman.com | http://spacehack.org ]
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>> Mikolaj Habryn dichro at rcpt.to
>> Thu Dec 17 10:44:43 PST 2009
>> ________________________________
>>
>> Excellent! Is there any chance that we're all going to be around
>> Noisebridge anytime this weekend to scheme? Late Sunday afternoon
>> (6pm-ish)? (and do you all have wave accounts? My desperate search for
>>
>> a use case continues....)
>>
>> m.
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 11:08 PM, Christie Dudley <longobord at
>> gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Yeah!  As I was saying when we last spoke, I think this is a really cool
>>
>>> idea.  I'm still waiting to hear back from my space people (they say maybe
>>> by early January.  I must confess that the longer I wait, the more
>>> discouraged I get, but I'm still hopeful.)  I'm terribly busy right now, but
>>
>>> I'd definitely be interested in looking at this.
>>>
>>> Christie
>>> ---
>>> Why I take the road less traveled?  Oh, that's easy.  I'm claustrophobic.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:45 PM, Brian Molnar <brian.molnar at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>> I have been *VERY* interested in doing this for some time now, so if you
>>>> want some help, I'm definitely down. Plus I'm very willing to contribute
>>>> financially.
>>
>>>>
>>>> - Molnar
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:14 PM, Mikolaj Habryn <dichro at rcpt.to> wrote:
>>
>>>>>
>>>>> There's been lots of articles of late about school kids sending
>>>>> weather balloons with cameras up to 100,000 feet for peanuts and
>>>>> getting amazing pictures. These projects kinda lack ambition -
>>
>>>>> although I'll confess to being grudgingly impressed nonetheless.
>>>>>
>>>>> By contrast, these guys are my heros -
>>>>> http://www.members.shaw.ca/sonde/ - they carry a glider up with a
>>
>>>>> home-built autopilot that navigates back to where they're waiting for
>>>>> it (sometimes upside-down). Their stories are the reason that I have a
>>>>> 2.6m r/c glider in my cube at work (that I'm too scared of to actually
>>
>>>>> fly).
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, a friend pointed out on the weekend that http://jpaerospace.com/
>>>>> have somewhat stolen my thunder, but, dammit, I still think there's
>>
>>>>> some fun to be had here.
>>>>>
>>>>> Things I'm keen to work on:
>>>>>
>>>>> Buoyancy control for high-altitude balloons - most of these guys send
>>
>>>>> balloons up until they burst and then recover payload under a
>>>>> parachute. It shouldn't be too hard to build something that can hold
>>>>> altitude by moving gas between envelope and rigid container (a full
>>
>>>>> day-night cycle might be hard, but you never know - at lower altitudes
>>>>> you could potentially condense water vapor and electrolyze to
>>>>> replenish hydrogen supplies). Talking to the blimpduino guys at maker
>>
>>>>> faire a year or two back, they were also interested in the idea of
>>>>> having a buoyancy control system at the smaller scale, but didn't
>>>>> think it could be done in their weight budget. I think they're wrong,
>>
>>>>> and I even had the parts to prove it at one stage.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1kg of batteries has enough energy to accelerate a 10g weight to
>>>>> orbital velocity.  I had a napkin once that claimed that a reasonably
>>
>>>>> efficient motor could achieve that by spinning a reasonable length
>>>>> tether at reasonable g forces, but I think I got the numbers wrong at
>>>>> the time :P OTOH, yesterday I saw a tech talk by the quick launch guys
>>
>>>>> (giant hydrogen cannons ftw) where they mentioned trivially
>>>>> g-hardening consumer electronics to 3200g, so maybe there's still a
>>>>> way of doing it with a reasonable length of practical tether - not
>>
>>>>> that I know *what* tether, how it will behave when the outer section
>>>>> of it is travelling at transonic speeds, drag losses at 100k feet, and
>>>>> what kind of interesting payload you can fit into 10 grams, but these
>>
>>>>> are implementation details.
>>>>>
>>>>> Um. I had other ideas, but can't think of them right at the moment.
>>>>> Anyone else have related projects or want to play? I intend to grab
>>
>>>>> some weather balloons from ebay, a cylinder of hydrogen and maybe some
>>>>> ardupilots and carefully skirt various FAA regulations in the next
>>>>> couple of months.
>>
>>>>>
>>>>> m.
>>>>>
>>>>> PS: and Black Rock City Spaceport - 'coz fuck steampunk.
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
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