182 lines
9.6 KiB
Markdown
Executable File
182 lines
9.6 KiB
Markdown
Executable File
### Email from Heather Goss (8/25/10)
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(DCist, <http://dcist.com/profile/dcist_heather/posts>)
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"I'll probably run most of this as a straight interview -- if it helps,
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answer lengths of a sentence or two, to a paragraph are usually good,
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unless it requires a more detailed answer. Can't wait to hear more!
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- Can you tell me a little about HacDC? How did you get involved? What
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kinds of other big projects have you done?
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The official description of what we are can be found at
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<http://hacdc.org/about/>. The shorter version is that HacDC is a
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member-supported space dedicated to making things by inventing,
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extending and repurposing new and junked stuff. We also research common
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interests by forming working groups and building projects, and building
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associations with like minded communities of interest, in DC and beyond.
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The general public is welcome to all events and is encouraged to join
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the hacker space.
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I \[Alberto\] came to HacDC via DorkbotDC, the DC chapter of the
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international group of *people to doing strange things with
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electricity.* Two of our members, Nick Farr and Adam Koeppel were
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DorkbotDC regulars and they germinated the idea to form a hacker space
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on DC. Parallel to their efforts to raise enough charter members to rent
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a space, a joint DorkbotDC and HacDC build-a-thon event was planned at
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the Koshland Museum of Science, spearheaded by DorkbotDC regular Mark
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Adams. The first friends and members of HacDC came from that community.
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HacDC is a relatively young organization but has organized several
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workshops aimed at teaching the basic skills necessary to be able to
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approach present and past technology with the creative mindset to mutate
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it in an innovative or idiosyncratic way. HacDC maintains a wiki with
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much of the organization's history (in progress) including ongoing and
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past projects: <http://wiki.hacdc.org/>
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- Tell me about Hackerspaces in Space. What was the goal? How many
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groups were involved?
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The Hackerspaces in space contest was initiated by Workshop 88
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(http://www.workshop88.com/), a hackerspace in Chicago. According to
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their website, 19 groups are involved from as far away as Thailand. The
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contest officially ended on August 31st. The rules are here:
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<http://www.workshop88.com/space/assets/download2.php> and include rules
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on cost, launch and recovery team size. Scoring criteria include
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retrieval time, weight of package, and cost. Our working group was code
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named the **Spaceblimp Project** because **Near-Space Balloon Project**
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didn't have the same ring to it; besides, Spaceblimp has a certain 70s
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disaster movie feel to it and this whole thing could have turned out to
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be so much pie in the sky. The team included a small core group of very
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talented and motivated people who dedicated many, many hours of
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planning, design, experimentation/prototyping, fabrication, funding, and
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good ol'sweat. It was their commitment and dedication that made this
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happen.
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- What was your experience building the spaceblimp? Did you have any
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interesting challenges to overcome? How long did it take to build the
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blimp?
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The rules were pretty limiting and we're still not sure where we rank.
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We learned that it's quite difficult to get a balloon into near space
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cheaply. There are also regional differences in materials/supplies
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pricing that give a relative advantage to some groups. We lost one
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balloon the week before the successful launch and that was traumatic and
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demoralizing. We had to weigh the desire to add redundant systems and
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more sensors—both of which would have allowed us to account for more
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contingencies—against the need to keep the payload light. As with most
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projects, the highly motivated few who drove the process had the most to
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lose so they were more nervous than the bystanders on launch day.
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- What was launch day like? (I'm curious more about everyone's
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feelings/reactions than a blow-by-blow of the day. Also can you give
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me the nitty gitty -- time, location, how long did it run.) Did
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anything surprising or crazy happen?
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The final launch took place on August 21, at Camp Spring, MD. The jet
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stream was acting crazy so the balloon deviated from the original
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prediction. The team was divided into launch and recovery subgroups.
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They both became parts of the chase team once the balloon was aloft. The
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stats on the launch can be found on the wiki:
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<http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/HacDC_Spaceblimp#Documentation>
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> "My feeling, at least, was excitement mingled with extreme dread; we'd
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> lost the last capsule pretty badly, and if this one didn't make it we
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> would completely miss the competition deadline. I really wanted to see
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> it all go well, and it's really thrilling to do that countdown and
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> release it into the sky," recalls Tom Cohlmia.
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The package descended a short distance from a private residence's pool,
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just beyond reach from outside the fence. Nobody was home and we were
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faced with a dilemma, jump the low fence and grab the package, or wait
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until the owners arrive? The decision was made for us as the owners' car
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pulled up. Our efforts turned to explaining to them why a group of
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people were congregated at the edge of their relatively rural property.
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They were amenable and allowed us to retrieve the package and go on our
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way. We gathered at a church up the road and converged there with the
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rest of the chasers. We cracked the "launch box" open and let it warm up
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a bit before pulling the SD card and transferring the images: without a
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photograph of the curvature of the planet, we would have nothing except
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a fun chase. As the images of blackness the of space appeared on the
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laptop, there was a great cheer.
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- What were the results of HacDC's launch in particular? Was it
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successful? How high did it go? And were you able to recover your
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payload? Did any other blimps achieve something spectacular?
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> "Ours was a big success! The payload went to 60,000 feet, and then
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> parachuted back to the ground. The payload was found in someone's
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> backyard, a few feet from their swimming pool. Everything was intact,
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> though, and the pictures turned out great. Total time from launch to
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> recovery, 1 hr 33 mins, traveling 27 miles as the crow flies."
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- What are the applications of the spaceblimp project? (What kinds of
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research can be done with blimps, and/or can even the process of
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developing new near-spacecraft like this help us in other ways?)
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We look forward to launching another balloon without having to worry
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about meeting contest criteria. We're talking about adding an
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accelerometer, several cameras with faceted mirror array to get many
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angles at once, and perhaps including video.
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There are a wide range of applications to this kind of technology, all
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of which have the potential of engaging communities at the grass roots
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level in the observation and analysis of the kind of scientific data
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collected from (near)space. Given the controversies over issues like
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global warming, land use, environmental disaster (yes, BP and Exxon, we
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are looking at you,) having a means for communities to monitor and
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record their own world and the changes in it is increasingly important.
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This technology greatly democratizes access to most of the value of a
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space program (satellites, etc.) without the cost. A relatively small
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group can monitor air quality, haze, temperature, radiation, and many
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other factors live and near-real time from 60,000 to 120,000 feet for
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very little money—without dependence on large government agencies or
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commercial organizations.
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In addition, the project provides a really exciting platform for a range
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of educational opportunities- all of which include the excitement of
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seeing the student's own work go into (near)space! We have had both
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school-age kids and teachers participate in our activities, and everyone
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went away excited about participating, along with being very interested
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in perhaps doing their own near-space balloon launch in the future! One
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thing is for certain: kids really "get it" about the fun and potential
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of high-altitude balloon launches!
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"If there's anything else you want to add, please let me know! Also,
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please send along any helpful links (I've got the ones to HacDC,
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Hackerspace, and the Flickr page), as well as a short bio describing you
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and anyone else who responds. Thanks!"
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### Some quotes from the number crunching
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From an email dated 8/21/10:
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> Woot! And because I just can't look at the raw numbers without my
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> graphing fingers getting all itchy....
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>
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> [1](http://www.jerkpile.com/spaceblimp/altitude_time.pdf) is the
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> rise/fall profile. Kinda boring. For more fun, have a look at
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> [2](http://www.jerkpile.com/spaceblimp/riseSpeed_time.pdf), which is
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> calculated by differencing altitude and time, and dividing. Nice
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> freefall until the chute opens!
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>
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> Many graphs just confirm stuff was working. gpsSatellites_time.pdf and
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> gpsHeading_time.pdf, for instance.
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>
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> The two temperature graphs, temp_time.pdf and temp_altitude.pdf give a
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> good idea of how cold it is up there (-50C Brrr...) and an test of our
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> improved insulation -- we bottomed out at a positively summery 6C.
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>
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> The neatest (IMO) is
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> [3](http://www.jerkpile.com/spaceblimp/windspeed_altitude.pdf) which
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> shows the balloon's lateral travel as a function of its altitude,
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> which is a good guess at windspeed. There's four points, one each for
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> the GPS's speed variable and a calculated speed (from differencing
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> location and time) and one each for rising and falling. Overall, a
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> decent profile of winds aloft.
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>
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> All files are hosted up on a bazaar repo at
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> [4](http://www.jerkpile.com/spaceblimp/). You can browse it directly.
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> blimp2_eeprom_log.txt has a copy of the raw data (thanks Nick), and
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> analyseBlimp.R has my R code for all the graphs. (apt-get install
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> r-base or just google "R"). — Elliot Williams |