DIY Instruments for Amateur Space: Inventing Utility for Your Spacecraft Once It Achieves Orbit

by Sandy Antunes

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449310646
Publisher:	Make Community, LLC
Publication date:	04/05/2013
Pages:	117
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Alexander "Sandy" Antunes (born 1967 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a Maryland-area astronomer, author, and role playing game designer. He graduated from Boston Universityin 1989 with a dual major in astronomy and physics, received a Masters in astronomy from Penn State in 1992, and received his PhD in computational astrophysics from George Mason Universityin 2005. He was the Maryland Science Center "Science Person of the Month" for May 2007.

Table of Contents

Preface; Why Sensors on Satellites Make Sense; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Understanding Measurement; 1.1 Brainstorming; Chapter 2: Introduction to Instruments; 2.1 Parameterizing a Mission; 2.2 Mission Domains; 2.3 Licensing; 2.4 Look at Past Missions; Chapter 3: By Wavelength; 3.1 The Spectrum; 3.2 Gamma and X-rays; 3.3 Ultraviolet; 3.4 Violet and Blue; 3.5 Cyan and Green; 3.6 Yellow and Orange; 3.7 Infrared; 3.8 Microwave, Submillimeter, and Radio; Chapter 4: Fundamental Detector Types; 4.1 The Eternal Fight: Resolution Versus Brightness; 4.2 Active Detectors; 4.3 Tradeoffs; 4.4 Imaging Detectors; 4.5 Sampling and Bandwidth Calculations; Chapter 5: Detectors and Instruments and Sensors, Oh My!; 5.1 Attitude; 5.2 Pointing Observations; 5.3 Sensors; 5.4 Deployable Payloads; 5.5 Operational Demo; 5.6 Sample Names; Chapter 6: Colors and Brightness; 6.1 Brightness; Chapter 7: Resolution, By the Numbers; 7.1 Detector Bins; 7.2 What About Noise?; 7.3 At a Glance; 7.4 Filters; 7.5 Digitization; Chapter 8: Noise; 8.1 Signal-to-Noise (S/N); 8.2 Types of Noise; 8.3 Adding Noises; Chapter 9: Calibration; 9.1 Response Function; 9.2 Calibration Protocols; 9.3 Real Versus "Book" Voltages; Chapter 10: Protocols; 10.1 Sensor Readout Theory; 10.2 Wiring Sensors and Sampling; 10.3 Clocks and Sampling Rates; 10.4 I2C; 10.5 TTL/UART/Serial/RS232; 10.6 SPI; 10.7 Controller Area Network; 10.8 Musical Instrument Digital Interface; 10.9 About Standards; Chapter 11: Instrument Modes; 11.1 Dynamic Range; 11.2 Defining Multiple Instrument Modes; 11.3 Triggering; 11.4 Non-Photon Detectors (And in situ); 11.5 CPUs; 11.6 Communications Limits; 11.7 Amateur (HAM) Radio; Chapter 12: Off-the-Shelf Sensor Hardware; 12.1 Shopping; 12.2 Particle Damage; 12.3 "Project Calliope" Sample Sensor Loadout; Chapter 13: Committing, Freezing, Moving Forward; 13.1 Buy Many; Exercises; JWST Build-a-Satellite; Solve a Decadal Problem for All of Humanity; Colophon;