pheloniusfriar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pheloniusfriar) wrote2013-10-27 05:03 pm
pheloniusfriar) wrote2013-10-27 05:03 pm
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Presenting at Canadian Space Summit!
I just received notification that my abstract has been accepted and that I have been invited to present a talk and answer questions at a plenary session at the 2013 Canadian Space Summit on November 14th and 15th. My talk will be titled "A Nanosat Payload for Space Weather Research" and it is based on the work I did developing the science payload for Carleton University's entry into the first Canadian Satellite Design Challenge, and the research I have continued to do on my own in actually building a proof-of-concept analogue of the detector (with any luck I will be light-tighting it tomorrow as I have finally figured out a way of getting the cables in and out without letting in any photons... harder than it sounds, and it sounds hard, heh). With any luck I will be able to present some initial data as part of the talk, but most of it will be on "space weather" and trying to predict it based on observing changes in the flux and directionality of galactic cosmic ray particles (mostly protons, but some helium nuclei) in orbit. Here is the abstract I submitted, more information, presumably, to follow:
Carleton University students entered the first Canadian Satellite Design Challenge with a proposal for a 3U Cubesat to monitor primary cosmic ray flux and anisotropy in low Earth orbit using a novel CsI(Tl)-based detector architecture. The data collected would be used to complement existing ground-based efforts studying secondary cosmic rays for clues on how to predict the arrival and severity of impending terrestrial geomagnetic storms caused by coronal mass ejections. The satellite design did not win the competition, but development work has continued on the scientific payload proposed by the author, and a low-cost ground-based analogue of the detector was completed in August 2013. Data taking for calibration and analysis has begun with an aim to validate the detector architecture using cosmic ray muons, and provide a realistic test bed for the optimization of the required low-power instrumentation electronics. A brief overview of the Carleton University design and the science behind it will be presented; followed by the rationale, design, and construction of the proof-of-concept detector and some preliminary operational findings.
Of course, this means more doom for me as I need to finish the talk in time for the summit, but again it's one of those thigns were it's impossible to say "no" (or at least really, really hard and possibly foolhardy to do so).
I think this version of the classic IBM "cosmic and microscopic" scales movie, with a new ambient electronica soundtrack is appropriate fare to round out this post (love the music, always one of my favourite movies):
Carleton University students entered the first Canadian Satellite Design Challenge with a proposal for a 3U Cubesat to monitor primary cosmic ray flux and anisotropy in low Earth orbit using a novel CsI(Tl)-based detector architecture. The data collected would be used to complement existing ground-based efforts studying secondary cosmic rays for clues on how to predict the arrival and severity of impending terrestrial geomagnetic storms caused by coronal mass ejections. The satellite design did not win the competition, but development work has continued on the scientific payload proposed by the author, and a low-cost ground-based analogue of the detector was completed in August 2013. Data taking for calibration and analysis has begun with an aim to validate the detector architecture using cosmic ray muons, and provide a realistic test bed for the optimization of the required low-power instrumentation electronics. A brief overview of the Carleton University design and the science behind it will be presented; followed by the rationale, design, and construction of the proof-of-concept detector and some preliminary operational findings.
Of course, this means more doom for me as I need to finish the talk in time for the summit, but again it's one of those thigns were it's impossible to say "no" (or at least really, really hard and possibly foolhardy to do so).
I think this version of the classic IBM "cosmic and microscopic" scales movie, with a new ambient electronica soundtrack is appropriate fare to round out this post (love the music, always one of my favourite movies):