Guutz Projects

A 547 nanometer photon has frequency 547 THz.

Last song - The Great Port of the Air, Luis Humanoide

Fav color - a nice dark royal purple

Currently watching - Frieren and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Currently reading - The Three Body Problem, Graphic Novel edition

Current obsessions - speech recognition on ESP32, Stardew Valley

Currently working on - massively parallel video readout circuits for a $1 million spectrography sensor

Last google search - "is frieren ace" – depends on your stance on bioessentialism, but also labels are fake (what even is a gender amirite)

science goal:

demonstrate ability to continuously store and transmit basic telemetry, including

GPS location

GPS altitude

Temperature inside package

Temperature outside package

Pressure

Battery current/voltage?

from 10 minutes before launch to 1 hour after landing;

reach Tropopause (~15km altitude) and observe subsequent increase in temperature;

survive the landing;

and be recovered.

hardware

Primary system: Adafruit 433 MHz RFM96 / M0 Feather, PA1010D GPS receiver, 2x BME680 pressure/temp sensor

Backup system: SPOT Trace satellite GPS tracker

POWER BUDGET -- conservative

2x Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA battery -- 4000mAh combined, at -40F

RFM96 transmit current / duty cycle: 125mA / 6%

GPS tracking current / duty cycle: 30mA / ?%

LINK BUDGET

RFM96 TX power: +20dBm

Monopole TX antenna gain: +3dBi

Free space path loss at 50km: 120dB

Yagi RX antenna gain: +7dBi

RFM96 RX sensitivity: -148dBm

Margin: +2dB ... real close ...

software

TBD

relevant FAA regulations

-> basically if the total mass of the flying thing is less than 4 pounds (1814 grams) then these rules don't apply to us, although it is still good practice to call the nearest air traffic control and tell them the predicted flight path

MASS BUDGET -- conservative

SPOT Tracker: 100 grams

Battery: 100 grams

Arduino: 10 grams

Antenna: 10 grams

Insulation: 300 grams

'Other': 80 grams

Total Payload: 600 grams

helium volume calculator

-> Takeaway summarized in graph below (using Hwoyee brand balloon specs) (plot code)

I think we can get away with a 300g balloon and about 50 cu.ft. of helium.

Sourcing the helium

Lowkey I might just buy a couple of these little 55 cu.ft. tanks from a welding supply shop.

flight train

@brightening-the-stars and I are both academics -- we both finished our undergrad degrees in physics before starting our WWOOF summer trip. We spent our days (and will soon return to spending our days) living in relatively cramped, choked, manicured, complicit metropolitan society, eyes trained on screens for a large portion of our waking hours. It's the less-than-glamorous reality of our theoretically humankind-bettering passions for learning how the universe works and looks. I don't want to go back. I'm itching to go back. It's confusing.

A word on permaculture -- its principles have really resonated with us throughout the summer. That's why we decided to do the ceiling mural in the living room. It's been really neat to see all the different WWOOF hosts' interpretations of the practices, too. Some live by the principles out of practical, physical necessity; others voluntarily and/or selectively, in incremental effort to live a good example; still others focus on the "fluffier" aspects of people care, like nonviolent assertive communication. It all just makes sense -- emotionally and scientifically.

We've really enjoyed learning from the folks at Mandali, learning from their example. We've even been inspired to try and revive the little community garden outside the Catalina apartments at Caltech. With all the staggering amounts of food and plant waste coming out of the Institute, I reckon we can make some stuff grow (Maubert giant sunflowers?) with that nice, rich compost, even under the scorching southern California sun.

Is that enough though?

As we continue to live in apartments that source water and electricity unsustainably, as we continue to buy our food from supermarkets with less-than-sustainable supply chains because it's all we have time to shop at in between our gasoline-powered commutes and workaholic 16-hour schedules of burning oxygen in our brains into arguably frivolous scientific pursuits that, from some perspectives, serve only to extract more minerals from the earth and further differentiate an elite technocratic priesthood who can afford to just move to more stable climates once the environmental effects of their industry catches up with them, leaving the common class behind to drown?

Is our little garden enough?

Answering 'yes' feels insensitive somehow. Answering 'no' begs the question of whether anything will ever be enough.

It's confusing.

Fill in the blanks in my senior thesis and submit that by Friday.

Study for and take a 50-question Intro Psychology final exam.

Write up the results from my independent study project on setting up radio transceivers.

Turn in three assignments and give a final presentation for Astronomy Observation on Friday.

Devise a 10-15 minute public talk about my research and how I got here for the storytelling presentation on Friday.

goose names:

Ryan (gosling)

Walter Honkite

Hambone

Dog

Bumps

Charlatan

War

Peace

Fortran