Projects – San Diego Space Society

The San Diego Space Society works toward creating a spacefaring civilization within our lifetimes by raising awareness and educating the general public to the benefits of space exploration and San Diego's role in it. More about us…

Visions of the Furure

Posted by Jesse Clark in Contests, Emporium, Events, Fundraising, Projects on May 3, 2012

Email spacewalk@sandiegospace.org for submission guidelines and here for further details.

Project PoGo Kickoff

Posted by Jesse Clark in Calendar, Chapter Updates, Education, Emporium, Projects on March 25, 2012

Sat, Apr 7, 2012

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Location:
Space Travelers Emporium (map)
1947 30th St. San Diego, CA 92102

Project PoGo kicks off with our first planning meeting to build our very own reusable suborbital payload based on the CanSat / CubeSat format.

The suborbital payload will be flown to the edge of space on a reusable rocket. This will allow data sample collection to be taken repeatedly and as well as adjustments and improvements to be made to the payload instrumentation. Our goal is to fly twice before the end of 2012.

PoGo’s payload could study a wide variety of phenomenon besides atmosphere and climate monitoring including cosmic radiation monitoring, ozone monitoring, EM field monitoring, etc.

PoGo will consist of at least two teams. One team will focus on payload development and another team will focus on launch provider selection and ground support, aka Mission Control.

Join the Team! We need people to help in the following areas:

team leaders (x2)
fundraisers
promotional and media specialists
people good with their hands
people knowledgeable in electronics
software programmers
ground support specialists
and many others.

Update: Team Leaders will be offered a free registration for a cubesat development workshop hosted by the Silicon Valley Space Center.

SD Space members and the public are invited to participate. Please email projects@sandiegospace.org if you’d like to attend.

Going to Space

Posted by Jesse Clark in Chapter Updates, Education, Projects, Science on February 15, 2012

The San Diego Space Society is going to Space! We are announcing two opportunities where members will be able to build and fly a small satellite into orbit and another to repeatedly fly on suborbital spaceflights. The orbital opportunity will be part of the KickSat program . The suborbital opportunity is part of our Project PoGo program. Go to our Projects section for more details.

Our first planning meeting will be announced for early March. We’ll need all kinds of people and skills to accomplish this goal in 2012 – team leaders, fundraising, promotional and media specialists, people good with their hands, people knowledgeable in electronics, software programming, to name just a few.

Want to remain more Earthbound? There is another exciting opportunity for you! In collaboration with the Mars Society and utilizing their Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) – a Mars habitat analog based in Hanksville, Utah – SD Space proposes a six month educational Mars Mission culminating in a two week stay at MDRS.

All aspects of the project still need to be developed, so get involved early on in this exciting opportunity. Mission designs, Marsnauts, fundraising, etc all need to be brought together. Go to our Experiences section for more details.

Interested or just curious? Contact projects@sandiegospace.org to sign up.

Project Build Day – Sky Satellite Project (PongSats)

Posted by Jesse Clark in Calendar, Education, Projects, Science on March 18, 2011

Sat, Mar 19, 2011

12:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Location:
Space Travelers Emporium (map)
1947 30th St. San Diego, CA 92102

Interested in building something? Get together with other SD Space members to work on space-related projects.

This month’s Saturday build session we’ll continue with our Sky Satellite project by designing and building PongSats.

Previously we built a balloon launched camera which we flew at a nearby park to a height of 250 feet. Next well start to design and build a micro sky satellite called a PongSat. What is a PongSat? It’s an ping pong ball sized experiment flown to the edge of space by balloons and/or launched in rockets. The launch and recovery opportunity is provided by JP Aerospace.

There are endless possibilities for experiments that can fit inside a ping pong ball. PongSat’s can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. Experiments can be as simple as comparing how high a ball bounces before and after being exposed to vacuum. The PongSat can carry seeds to see if exposure to cosmic rays effect their growth. Several small inexpensive computers and other electronic can fit inside a PongSat. These can be used to create a wide range of experiments. Whether carrying a marshmallow to see if it puffs up in the vacuum of near space or an entire sophisticated satellite in miniature, PongSat can create motivation, drive and passion. – JP Aerospace