The club administration has decided that we will be participating in the Elevator Pitch competition sponsored by the OEDK. We will be pitching the microsatellite mechanism as a cheap way to launch small satellites into orbit for a variety of uses ranging from student experiments to cluster satellites. If we win some money, we can use it to build prototypes and start running tests on the individual components of our system.
The windwalker lives! The final parts of the structure for the 4-leg prototype have been assembled, and it is now fully capable of walking and even stands on its own. At this point, the structure does occasionally lock up due to some misaligned holes, but we now have a proof of concept and can continue on to the next stage of prototyping. We are also waiting for a response from the Rice Envision Grant on whether or not they will sponsor the full structure.
The microsatellite project made a major leap forward this Sunday. We have come up with a viable solution for launching a satellite up to an orbital height of ~200 km. The concept borrows from the basic physics problem of the driven pendulum, as well as conservation of angular momentum. A paper is currently being written that includes a full description and the complete set of equations governing the system. It will be posted on the google group sometime in the next few days, and may be posted on the website at a later date. If you are not a member of the google group and wish to see the paper, simply contact one of our officers and we will see what we can do.
I would like to thank Dr. Reginald Dufour for providing us with a private viewing of the Rice Observatory. It was a wonderful experience and it was definitely appreciated by all who attended.