STAR-XL: student transponder for satellite Ranging on X & L-band

The ESA ESEO Mission [1] included an amateur radio payload [2]. The results of which included the development of radio technologies that utilised final year student projects over a 5 year period. Many lessons regarding compliance and process enabled a new payload to follow: the Student Ranging Transponder Radio for X-band and L-band (or STAR-XL). The STAR-XL design leverages key aspects of the ESEO payload design for a generic CubeSat platform; including TT&C voltage and current sense circuitry, receiver circuitry, and flight software. But instead of a maximum 4800 bps telemetry and transponder system - the STAR- XL targets a 100 kHz bandwidth system that will allow faster downlink rates that are forward error correction, link margin and modulation order dependent. With 100 kHz bandwidth, the linear receiver is designed to also operate as a transponder - enabling ranging and navigation applications such as orbit determination and further experiments from amateur radio groundstations. This paper details the recent student project efforts in three key areas: a new STM32-based on-board computer, an X-band up-converter board and dual X/L band patch (as shown in Fig. 1). The new OBC includes an IQ modulator for transmitting complex waveforms and an optimised flight software suite that takes advantage of dual DMA hardware on-chip to reduce overheads. The X-band upconverter board required the development of new safety interlock and RF chain circuitry on a Rogers (RO4350B) PCB material. A new dual X/L-band patch antenna and filter circuit is also built and measured. Each of these projects has led to new lessons and increased the real-world case studies used to teach spacecraft avionics

Richard C. Bridges to his sister, undated

Fragment of a letter presumably from Richard C. Bridges to his sister informing her that she need not send him winter clothes; he is well-supplied by the government.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/ciwar_corresp/1000/thumbnail.jp

Stardust microcrater residue compositional groups

Compositional groups are defined in residue from Stardust craters (1-9 Dc) by qualitative EDS. These compositional groups are being further studied by a FIB-SEM technique to determine representative residue compositions

Limiting stable currents in bounded electron and ion streams

The classical static analysis of the infinite planar diode has been extended to include the effects of finite transverse beam size. Simple expressions have been found for the increase in maximum stable current density over that of an infinite stream for finite cylindrical and strip streams flowing between plates of infinite diodes. The results are also given in terms of stream perveance. The effect of a nonuniform distribution of current across the stream is shown to be relatively small. Experimental values of maximum stable current agree with those obtained from the analysis. A further extension of the static analysis has been made to include the effects of additional conducting plane boundaries parallel to the stream motion. For length-to-width ratios L/D less than 0.25 the tube is adequately described by the results for the infinite planar diode and for L/D greater than 4, the infinitely-long drift tube theory suffices. At intermediate values of L/D, the maximum amount of current that can be stably passed through the tube is greater than that predicted by either asymptotic theory

Monotypes

Concentration paper.1984 Spring.Includes bibliographic references (pages 69-70)

Interior event

1984 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Supplemental zip file includes 12 slides of artwork.My work is based on rooms I have entered, where a corner or objects on a table quicken and stimulate me visually. The way things are placed geometrically and the way light falls to alter and distort them becomes a phenomenon or event. That arrangement or event spells out something very personal; a culmination of reality shown as pure form. It is a unique quality found only there at that moment, which is made up of unrepeatable consequences. These forms perceived in a certain relationship are an inspiration to me, and I create an image stemming from my emotion to it

Geochemical Endmembers preserved in Gale Crater: A tale of two mudstones and their compositional differences according to ChemCam

Gale crater contains two fine-grained mudstone sedimentary units: The Sheepbed mudstone member, and the Murray formation mud-stones. These mudstones formed as part of an ancient fluviolacustrine system. The NASA Curiosity rover has analysed these mudstone units using the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam), Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) onboard instrument suites. Subsequent mineralogical analyses have uncovered a wide geochemical and mineralogical diversity across and within these two mudstone formations. This study aims to determine the principal cause (alteration or source region) of this geochemical variation through a statistical analysis of the ChemCam dataset up to sol 1482, including the lower to middle Murray formation