Saturday, May 4th

Sunday, May 5th

How can manned suborbital vehicles support science in the upper atmosphere?  We will get an example of this in our next TechTalk, on Monday, April 22.  Jason Reimuller, prinicipal investigator on PoSSUM, will describe the project.  Below is the first part of the abstract on the TechTalks webpage for the talk.

The Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere (PoSSUM) campaign will employ a manned reusable suborbital vehicle that will launch from a high-latitude spaceport (e.g. Alaska or Kiruna, Sweden) during a weeklong deployment scheduled for July 2014 to study numerous aspects of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs).  PoSSUM will optimize the opportunity created by the “PMC  Imagery and Tomography Experiment”, a high-latitude campaign selected by the NASA Flight Opportunities Program (Experiment 46-S) to study the small-scale dynamics of PMCs.  The PoSSUM Project will make full use of the 46-S opportunity by fully utilizing all available payload space and campaign deployment time to optimize technology maturation and science return while validating a repeatable, low-cost means to study seasonal trends of PMCs.

The manned suborbital spacecraft referenced is the XCOR Lynx, which is currently being completed in Mojave, California.  This is a chance to learn about this PMC phenomena as well as what it’s like to work with the NASA Flight Opportunities Program.  The TechTalks webpage lists some additional links to resources, including a 2-page summary PDF of the project.

This talk is one of the on-going series of Small Payload Entrepreneur TechTalks co-sponsored by SVSC and the AIAA San Francisco Section.  The talks are free.  We ask a small donation for munchies that we bring to keep the neurons going.  There is a “Let Us Know” button on the page to help us gauge the amount of munchies to bring.

A Space Hacker Workshop for Suborbital Experiments will take place at the Hacker Dojo, directly across from NASA Ames Research Center, May 4-5.  Participants will learn how to build and fly experiments in space aboard the XCOR Lynx in a 10-flight program managed by Citizens in Space.  The program will accommodate up to 100 CubeLab experiments.

Details are now posted on the Workshops page.  Registration by April 18 is $100.  After that is $125, and at the door, $150.

The current set of events on the calendar page:

• Deep Space Industries – (SVSC/AIAA SF) – Mar 25 (Mon)
• Polar Sub-Orbital Science – (SVSC/AIAA SF) – Apr 22 (Mon)
• Citizen Science Workshop – XCOR CubeLab Payloads – (SVSC) – May 4 (Sat)

If you are a current member of SVSC, you should have received the March 2013 edition of The Lurio Report.

AIAA SF/SVSC Small Payloads TechTalks
Monday, February 25, 2013; 6:30pm-8:00pm
Hacker Dojo, Mountain View

Mission Control Technologies (MCT) is an extensible architecture that was developed as a generic framework for developers and deployed with a specific set of modules as an application at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Developed at NASA Ames Research Center, the suite is now available as open source software. Jay Trimble, leader of the User Centered Technology (UCT) Group at NASA Ames, will talk about the development and use of the software at NASA and the potential use for educational and commercial cubesat and other small satellite missions.

Mission Control Technologies software monitoring a launch

Traditional software is built as monolithic applications. The functionality of an application is determined during design and development. Once an application is developed and tested, change is difficult, leaving users with few options other than operational workarounds, if the software does not do what is needed. Recent software systems have evolved away from monolithic applications to collections of components and services. This model leaves organizations with a more effective way to customize and reuse software.

The Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, program from 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 PM EDT, 9-10:30 PM CDT): We welcome back DR. SEAN CASEY for updates and news with the Silicon Valley Space Center.

Team SpaceIL / Israeli Moon Mission

Wednesday, February 13, 6:30pm – Mountain View, CA

A group of young Israeli engineers and space experts have formed a team in pursuit of the Google Lunar X Prize.  Not only do they want to win the competition and strengthen the Israeli space industry, but they also want to inspire the next generation of science and technology leaders — fostering public enthusiasm and interest in science, technology and math (STEM) disciplines among Israeli youth.

This event is sponsored by Jewish High Tech Community (JHTC) in conjunction with SVSC.

The Silicon Valley Space Center (SVSC) is a non-profit business league committed to the acceleration of entrepreneurial business concepts in the developing NewSpace sector.  With over a dozen founding members from the local science, engineering, and business communities, the SVSC meets monthly at the Hacker Dojo to discuss small payload opportunities aboard sub-orbital, orbital, and lunar vehicles and the developing supply chains that supports this industry.

Interested in participating? Stop by at one of our events.