Author: Sandy AntunesPublisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1449310621
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 91
Book Description
"Project book: living past launch"--Cover.
Author: Sandy AntunesSurviving Orbit the DIY Way
Author: Sandy AntunesPublisher: Maker Media, Inc.
ISBN: 1449356125
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 102
Book Description
Is your picosatellite ready for launch? Can it withstand rocket thrusts and the vacuum of space? This do-it-yourself guide helps you conduct a series of hands-on tests designed to check your satellite’s readiness. Learn precisely what the craft and its electronic components must endure if they’re to function properly in Low Earth Orbit. The perfect follow-up to DIY Satellite Platforms (our primer for designing and building a picosatellite), this book also provides an overview of what space is like and how orbits work, enabling you to set up the launch and orbit support you’ll need. Go deep into the numbers that describe conditions your satellite will face Learn how to mitigate the risks of radiation in the ionosphere Pick up enough formal systems engineering to understand what the tests are all about Build a thermal vacuum chamber for mimicking environment of space Simulate the rocket launch by building and running a vibration shake test Use a homebuilt centrifuge to conduct high G-force tests Get guidelines on scheduling tests and choosing an appropriate lab or clean room
DIY Satellite Platforms
Author: Sandy AntunesPublisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1449310605
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 85
Book Description
"Can any hobbyist build a satellite? Our DIY guide steps you through designing and building a base picosatellite platform tough enough to withstand launch and survive in orbit. If you have basic maker skills, you can build a space-ready solar-powered computer-controlled assembly suitable for attaching instruments and rocketing into space." [résumé éditeur].
DIY Instruments for Amateur Space
Author: Sandy AntunesPublisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1449368735
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 121
Book Description
What can you measure and what are your limits when orbiting in space? Learn about what physical quantities you can measure and what types of sensors you can buy or build. We cover the 5 essential design limits as well: power, bandwidth, resolution, computing... and legal limitations. Explore what you can play with using your own personal satellite.
DIY Comms and Control for Amateur Space
Author: Sandy AntunesPublisher: Maker Media, Inc.
ISBN: 1680450476
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 102
Book Description
Radio spectrum for commanding and recording from our satellites is a shared resource with subtle hurdles. We walk the path originally paved by AMSATs to discuss the steps and licensing needed to set up and operate both a command uplink and a data download station and network. Find out how playing nicely with others maximizes your ability to get your data down.
DIY Instruments for Amateur Space
Author: Sandy AntunesPublisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1449310648
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 121
Book Description
La 4e de couverture indique : "Whether your picosatellite is watching the Earth or gazing at the stars, you need to know what you're sensing. This do-it-yourself guide explains what you can measure---and the constraints on those measurements---when you're orbiting the Earth. Learn exactly what physical quantities you can measure, and how to plan your sensor loadout. The perfect follow-up to DIY Satellite Platforms (our primer for designing and building a picosatellite), this book takes you beyond just flying a camera in space and shows you what data you can gather and play with using your own personal satellite. Learn about all the sensors you can select for your mission; get acquainted with key electronic communications protocols; I2C, TTL, SPI, analog, and digital; find out how much more your instruments can "see" when they're above the atmosphere; Understand how to calibrate sensors and how to pick the signal out of the noise; determine the optimal data acquisition rate for your available bandwith; [and] look at off-the-shelf sensor hardware and CPU choices (such as Arduino)"
Tcl/Tk in a Nutshell
Author: Paul RainesPublisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 0596555792
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 458
Book Description
The Tcl language and Tk graphical toolkit are simple and powerful building blocks for custom applications. The Tcl/Tk combination is increasingly popular because it lets you produce sophisticated graphical interfaces with a few easy commands, develop and change scripts quickly, and conveniently tie together existing utilities or programming libraries.One of the attractive features of Tcl/Tk is the wide variety of commands, many offering a wealth of options. Most of the things you'd like to do have been anticipated by the language's creator, John Ousterhout, or one of the developers of Tcl/Tk's many powerful extensions. Thus, you'll find that a command or option probably exists to provide just what you need.And that's why it's valuable to have a quick reference that briefly describes every command and option in the core Tcl/Tk distribution as well as the most popular extensions. Keep this book on your desk as you write scripts, and you'll be able to find almost instantly the particular option you need.Most chapters consist of alphabetical listings. Since Tk and mega-widget packages break down commands by widget, the chapters on these topics are organized by widget along with a section of core commands where appropriate. Contents include: Core Tcl and Tk commands and Tk widgets C interface (prototypes) Expect [incr Tcl] and [incr Tk] Tix TclX BLT Oratcl, SybTcl, and Tclodbc
The Knowledge
Author: Lewis DartnellPublisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143127047
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
How would you go about rebuilding a technological society from scratch? If our technological society collapsed tomorrow what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible? Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us, happily utilizing the latest—or even the most basic—technology without having the slightest idea of why it works or how it came to be. If you had to go back to absolute basics, like some sort of postcataclysmic Robinson Crusoe, would you know how to re-create an internal combustion engine, put together a microscope, get metals out of rock, or even how to produce food for yourself? Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. Every piece of technology rests on an enormous support network of other technologies, all interlinked and mutually dependent. You can’t hope to build a radio, for example, without understanding how to acquire the raw materials it requires, as well as generate the electricity needed to run it. But Dartnell doesn’t just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them all—the phenomenal knowledge-generating machine that is the scientific method itself. The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world.
Red Rover
Author: Roger WiensPublisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465051995
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
For centuries humankind has fantasized about life on Mars, whether it’s intelligent Martian life invading our planet (immortalized in H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds) or humanity colonizing Mars (the late Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles). The Red Planet’s proximity and likeness to Earth make it a magnet for our collective imagination. Yet the question of whether life exists on Mars—or has ever existed there—remains an open one. Science has not caught up to science fiction—at least not yet. This summer we will be one step closer to finding the answer. On August 5th, Curiosity—a one-ton, Mini Cooper-sized nuclear-powered rover—is scheduled to land on Mars, with the primary mission of determining whether the red planet has ever been physically capable of supporting life. In Getting to Mars, Roger Wiens, the principal investigator for the ChemCam instrument on the rover—the main tool for measuring Mars’s past habitability—will tell the unlikely story of the development of this payload and rover now blasting towards a planet 354 million miles from Earth. ChemCam (short for Chemistry and Camera) is an instrument onboard the Curiosity designed to vaporize and measure the chemical makeup of Martian rocks. Different elements give off uniquely colored light when zapped with a laser; the light is then read by the instrument’s spectrometer and identified. The idea is to use ChemCam to detect life-supporting elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen to evaluate whether conditions on Mars have ever been favorable for microbial life. This is not only an inside story about sending fantastic lasers to Mars, however. It’s the story of a new era in space exploration. Starting with NASA’s introduction of the Discovery Program in 1992, smaller, scrappier, more nimble missions won out as behemoth manned projects went extinct. This strategic shift presented huge opportunities—but also presented huge risks for shutdown and failure. And as Wiens recounts, his project came close to being closed down on numerous occasions. Getting to Mars is the inspiring account of how Wiens and his team overcame incredible challenges—logistical, financial, and political—to successfully launch a rover in an effort to answer the eternal question: is there life on Mars?
