Sydney and Melbourne Workshops for Sprite Satellites Scheduled for 2012-13
9th Nov 2011
PlusComms is excited to announce that it is launching a series of workshops for the upcoming Sprite Mission to be launched from the US in 2013. This is a truly amazing one time opportunity to be one of the first schools to own and fly a spacecraft. Initial workshops are scheduled for Melbourne and Sydney Australia. PlusComms Pty Ltd,an Australian based telecommunications company that works with space communications,will provide the framework for the workshops.
The Sprite Spacecraft are a swarm of tiny satellites to be launched by Zac Manchester,a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. He and his team have designed a swarm of these small spacecraft and a delivery system. You can buy a basic spacecraft from the KickSat team for US$300 and you can track it,but if you want to program your own spacecraft to do experiments with the Kidz-In-Space Fleet you will need to be part of our workshop.
The workshops are expected to commence early in 2012 with delivery of the spacecraft to the workshop in mid 2012. It is hoped that the launch window will be sometime in 2013. More workshops will be added as required.
PlusComms Workshops:
Sydney: Conducted by Robert Brand –Telecommunications Manager,Echoes of Apollo,Wotzup editor with programing experience and a long history of missions requiring deep space communications,including NASA’s Voyager and ESA’s Giotto probes.
Melbourne: Conducted by David W Galea –Science Teacher at Baden Powell college;Part of the Synergy Moon Team working with our lander development group as a lead researcher and computer systems designer.
Country Schools in each state can join us by Skype.
Cost of the Workshops –A$600 for each Sprite and two representatives
Registrations must be made immediately and no later than 1st Dec 2011 to confirm a place in the workshop. Registration details will be posted shortly,but please let us know ASAP by emailing me at robert.brand@pluscomms.com The price is in Australian dollars.
Who Can Attend
The nominated two representatives –anyone or any group,but especially students and schools.
Additional representatives at A$200 per person. This does not provide you with additional Sprites.
What You Will Receive
- Your name on one of KickSat’s panels that will fly into space.
- A replica Sprite spacecraft of your own as a souvenir.
- Your own Sprite in space with your initials in its radio.
- A programing and experiment workshop with approximately 10 evening meetings over a year.*
- A certificate at the end of the workshop for the representative and one for the organisation represented.*
- Access to the experimental data from the orbital flight.*
- The opportunity to contribute to mission experiments.*
- Be publicly part of the Kidz In Space fleet mission team.*
- Your craft will be part of the Kidz in Space Fleet.
* Additional representatives will receive these items only
Note,you can buy a Sprite direct from the KickStart page for $300 and join the fleet. You will not however be part of our swarm experiment nor will you be allowed to attend workshops.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/251588730/kicksat-your-personal-spacecraft-in-space
Benefits of our Workshop
We are able to provide a group arrangement especially for schools and students:
- It is cheaper than the KickSat development kit alone.
- The workshop will allow access to a greater number of experiments.
- Programming support.
- We will end up with a single program for all the workshop sprites so programing ability is not essential.
- Education on many of the flight aspects.
- Access to experts in the space sector.
- Materials for teachers and students.
Please note that these workshops are NOT part of the KickSat Sprite project,but the ability to conduct such workshops is supported by the KickSat Sprite team.
Do I need to Program Computers?
No. That will be optional. You may just be attending so that you can learn and be inspired or to inspire your students. The embedded software side will be an optional part of the workshop and included in the fees.
Classroom Workshops.
If a class or school can purchase 6 or more sprites,we will be happy to conduct classes to support the students within their schools. No more than 30 students can attend the workshop which may be during out of school hours. A teacher will need to be available during the sessions. Better results will be with groups of 12-20. Currently the courses will be held in Metropolitan area of Sydney or Melbourne. The workshop may concentrate more on the satellites,the experiments,the science and the expectations rather than teaching embedded programing. This will be more about inspiring students,but programming will be possible.
Contact Us First
Before you rush in and buy a Sprite,please note that you will need to buy through PlusComms and not the KickSat website. PlusComms gets a special deal by running the workshops. If you buy direct,you can still join the fleet,but you will NOT be able to attend the workshops.
Who are PlusComms?
PlusComms are heavily involved in space communications are currently building a Global Space Network with sites in Australia,the US and UK.
Contact PlusComms by visiting our “Contacts”page located under the “About Us”Menu tab or Click Here
You can hear the Manager of PlusComms,Robert Brand,talk about the project on the well-known “The Space Show”by Clicking Here
