Image Gallery
(Mouse-over to pause and show descriptions)
START HERE
CURRENT STATUS (5/1)
Finally starting to rev up towards an exciting 2010 sequel, power beaming and tether

Details soon...

 
NOT THE WHOLE STORY
Please Note:

You are currently viewing only the "UofM" category.

View All Posts
FOLLOW
THE SPACE ELEVATOR BLOG
For the obvious reasons, I invariably get too busy to blog exactly when things get interesting...

For the latest word, and for a wider perspective on all things Space Elevator, you can alway turn to Ted Semon's most excellent Space Elevator Blog - www.SpaceElevatorBlog.com

OUR SPONSORS

The TRUMPF Group is one of the world's leaders in the field of production technology - machine tools, material processing, high power lasers, electronics and in medical technology.

TRUMPF took a natural interest in the Power Beaming challenge, and they are providing their 8 kWatt top-of-the-line laser system for use by teams KCSP, USST, U Michigan, and NSS.

Find out all about TRUMPF's laser systems at www.trumpf-laser.com

Mackey International is an aviation consulting firm specializing in aviation safety, risk management, accident investigation, air carrier certification and safety/compliance audits.

With Mackey's experience and expertise, Spaceward was able to put together an operations plan that satisfied the requirements of NASA's aviation safety review - not an easy feat given that a rotorcraft-tether configuration such as ours has never been flown before.

Find out all about Mackey International's capabilities at www.keithmackey.com

Bitter WHAT?! Exactly. This is what Nic DeGrazia, Creative Director of Bitter Jester Creative, told me about their company's name. Nobody ever forgets it.

The same is true about BJC's work. Winners of Telly and Hermes awards, their work brings out the human element in every story.

BJC are continuing their 2-year project of documenting the games, now in its third year. Find out all about them at www.BitterJester.com

Dynon Avionics designs, manufactures and distributes a growing line of affordable glass cockpit avionics. Operated by aviation enthusiasts, Dynon utilizes the very latest state-of-the-art technologies to create modern avionics products with an emphasis on lowering prices and enhancing reliability.

For the games, we had to assemble a special helicopter station-keeping system that will allow the pilots to position the helicopter accurately even when flying at 4300' AGL. Dynon components were our first choice, and are doing the job beautifully.

Find out more at www.dynonavionics.com

Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

Find out more at www.LockheedMartin.com

Since its inception in 1962, OMEGA has grown from manufacturing a single product line of thermocouples to an established global leader in the technical marketplace, offering more than 100,000 state-of-the-art products for measurement and control of temperature, humidity, pressure, strain, force, flow, level, pH and conductivity. OMEGA also provides customers with a complete line of data acquisition, electric heating and custom engineered products.

Omega has been sponsoring the games with various equipment such as large format displays and load cells since 2006.

Find out more at www.omega.com

SPIE is an international membership society, serving scientists and engineers in industry, academia, and government, as well as companies producing leading-edge products. SPIE constituents work in a wide variety of fields that utilize some aspect of optics and photonics, which is the science and application of light. More specifically, optics is a branch of physics that examines the behavior and properties of light and the interaction of light with matter. Photonics is the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons, which are particles of light.

Find out more at www.spie.org

LEARN MORE
WE CAN REALLY USE YOUR HELP

While NASA sponsors the $4M prize purse, Spaceward does not receive any of it - we fund our operations from donations and sponsorships from people like you.

Our sponsors and donors are people who believe in the infinite promise (and cool factor) of the Space Elevator, and would like to be associated with it and help in its development.

You can see the media impact we've had to date here, and with our NASA TV coverage this year (available on DirecTV #238) and our livecast we will reach millions of people with our (and your) message.

To see the impact we've had on technology education, our best advertisements are our student teams, who started out as curious high-schoolers and undergrads, and by now have built cutting-edge photonics systems worthy of NASA itself!


$€¥
Total raised so far: $625 - THANK YOU!
SITE NAV
KILROY WAS HERE
free counters
VERY FUNNY
(http://elevator2space.com)
LATEST NEWS

University of Michigan – MClimber – part 2

PERMALINK Filed under: Team Specific, Timeline, UofM — CrazyEddieBlogger on June 19, 2009, 12:21 pm
MClimber in the sun, array (right) and climber (left)

MClimber in the sun, array (right) and climber (left)

An early end. At approximately 12:10 am, the MClimber beam director fractured.

An early end. At approximately 12:10 am, the MClimber beam director fractured.

The MClimber Team

The MClimber Team

xxx

MClimber’s time in the sun turned out to be pretty short.

We got a good look at the array’s reflective properties using sun illumination, and while the array does give the appearance of a disco ball, all the reflections are very low quality (this is a good thing, as intended) and diverge very quickly. 

Before illuminating the array with the laser, since the tracking is manual, we rant the beam-director side melt test, pushing 8 kWatt through the optics. Regrettably, as we were passing the 4 kWatt mark, one of the mirrors cracked.

A quick post morten identified the culprit as a mirror retainer that was placed too far in and was thus illuminated. It heated up, and the thermal expansion pushed on the delicate mirror and fractured it.

This is not something the team could fix on the spot, and so the test was over. Since we’re contemplating a second testing period now, MClimber is not out of the ballgame, but they need to scramble to both fix the damage and complete the other parts that were not quite ready.

I hope to see them back soon – the system is obviously a result of long and hard work, and at a minimum it should get a chance to run to its potential rather than stay on the sidelines due to a mirror injury.

The MClimber team are (left to right):

  • Andrew Lyjak
  • Richard Chiang
  • Casey Keys
  • John Nees

University of Michigan – MClimber

PERMALINK Filed under: Team Specific, Timeline, UofM — CrazyEddieBlogger on June 18, 2009, 11:54 pm
MClimber Concentrator Pod

MClimber Concentrator Pod

One array = 37 pods

One array = 37 pods

MClimbers telescope gimbal, under construction

MClimber's telescope gimbal, under construction

The University of Michigan’s MClimber team is back in force this year, with a very unique climber.

Following the lead of many solar applications, UofM chose to use concentrator PV modules – small, high-intensity-capable photovoltaic cells, and low-cost optics to capture as much light as possible and direct it onto the cells.

The beam director is pretty straight forward, built around a telescope gimbal. Controlled from a laptop, it is capable of performing the basic motions required. The tracking loop is not quite done yet, so during the test they’ll drive it manually.  This is not a problem, since we do not really require tracking – it is just desirable. As long as the system does not exceed the safety cone, they can perform lasing. 

The UofM climber design is modular. The first image shows a single concentrator “pod”, comprised of a Fresnel lens in the front, 4 reflective side panels forming a square-based pyramid, and a small 3×3 array of cells near the tip of the pod. The concentrator cells have a water based cooling system, since under the concentrated light, they will get to be pretty toasty.

As with all concentrating climbers, the optics on the climber have to point back towards the beam director, which requires a second tracking loop. Since the climber is unmanned, this loop cannot be driven manually, and I suspect that therein lies trouble. Luckily, this loop does not have to be as accurate as the main beam tracking loop.

MClimber will follow KCSP on the laser range, at around 10 am on Friday – stay tuned.



NOT THE WHOLE STORY
Please Note:

You are currently viewing only the "UofM" category.

View All Posts