Write Your Code Like NASA Does
Make Magazine recently published a video by Allyson Aberg highlighting 3 guidelines from JPL’s “Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code”. Worthwhile to watch the video for it contains more information than the written text. The guidelines can be found at: http://pixelscommander.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/P10.pdf Pixelscommander has applied these guidelines to JavaScript in this post. A more detailed document […]
Update on CTE Mission: Cubesat Finalists
The five finalists are in the final two weeks of preparation and testing before taking flight on high altitude balloons or drones stating April 23. Learn more about their missions and read their blog entries at: https://www.ctemissioncubesat.com/finalists/
ScienceHeads.org HAB6 Balloon Flight
On Saturday, February 20, 2021, ScienceHeads (a STEM education group out of Lake Forest, CA, US) launched and successfully recovered their sixth high altitude balloon (HAB). It carried a flight recorder that I built, as well as several radios for tracking and seeds for student experiments. I was member of the recovery team chasing the […]
Finalists in CTE: CubeSat Challenge Announced Today
“What impressed us most about the mission proposals was students’ enthusiasm to take on complex and ambitious projects — many of which focused on issues similar to what our national space missions are currently tackling.”— Scott Stump, Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education Scott Stump’s quote says it […]
An Exciting Virtual Balloon Launch by ScienceHeads.org
While checking the status of my Palm Desert balloon tracking station on aprs.fi, I noticed the balloon KM6HCB-11 was traveling overhead. With the help of Google, I discovered it was launched by Science Heads, a Southern California STEM organization for middle and high school students. And I could participate remotely from La Jolla. Because of […]
Arduino EDUvision on YouTube
This is embarrassing, but I just learned that arduino.cc (the mothersite) has a STEAM channel on YouTube. Season 2 focus was on the Internet of Things (IOT). Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT6rF_I5kknPWSLv9uU3Kc0v9-1q4IymY
94 CTE Mission CubeSat proposals received
When submissions closed on October 16, CTE Mission: CubeSat had received 94 mission proposals from schools across the United States. The teams proposed a range of thought-provoking CubeSat projects, such as tracking changes to Earth’s magnetic field, assessing the environmental impact of pandemic lockdowns, and studying space debris. During two CTE webcasts, Robert Twiggs, co-inventor […]
Magnitude.io Webcast on High Altitude Balloons (HAB)
As part of the CTE: Mission CubeSat Challenge Program, Magnitude.io conducted a very informative webcast outlining the details of planning, launching and tracking a high altitude balloon (HAB). Highly recommended. Watch the video here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xEjkH6-O_IB82LlpEFltDetJx49A9A94/view Please let me know if the link is no longer valid.
Cubes in Space registration opens Nov 6, 2020
The Cubes in Space program engages high school students and teachers from around the world to design unique experiments, that must fit into a 40mm cube, to be launched into space on a NASA sounding rocket or a high-altitude balloon. Details at https://www.cubesinspace.com/
HobbySpace.com
Your webguide to space hobbies and activities. Its mission: “To prove to you that everyone can participate in space exploration and development in one way or another.” Don’t let the name fool you – it’s more than model rockets. This site is a wealth of information and projects at all levels. Check out HobbySpace.com.
Water Bottle Rockets
I never thought much about water bottle rockets until I viewed a YouTube video on their use in Shields Lab’s virtual summer camp. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Zqx5QCe5b41CcZeWL003g The camp uses Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Express for numerous coding projects and on day 5, the “launch” the CPEx as a flight recorder on a bottle rocket. Since many schools will […]
New US Dept of Education Program
The US Department of Education announced a new education program that invites high school students to design and build CubeSat prototypes. Details can be found here: https://www.ctemissioncubesat.com/ A virtual information session was held on September 1, 2020. Zoom recording available on their website.
XinaBox – Modular Components
One of the sponsors of the CTE Mission CubeSat challenge is XinaBox.cc. They developed a unique system of arduino based components, sensors and radios for the STEM/STEAM market. The components “snap” together forming a rigid stable platform for experimentation. Their system is much faster to assemble than traditional breadboarding or even 4-wire systems such as […]
