TWIAR News Feed

///////////////////////////////////////////
The Smallsat launcher war

Posted: 12 Feb 2017 11:28 AM PST
http://bit.ly/2khba6w

Over the last decade or so the definition of what a ‘small satellite’ is
has ballooned beyond the original cubesat design specification to
satellites of 50 or 100 kg. Today a ‘smallsat’ is defined far more around
the cost, and sometimes the technologies used, than the size and shape of
the box that goes into orbit.

There are now more than fifty companies working on launch vehicles
dedicated to lifting these small satellites into orbit, and while nobody
really expects all of those to survive the next few years, it’s going to be
an interesting time in the launcher market. Because I have a sneaking
suspicion that Jeff Bezos’ statement that “there’s not that much
interesting about cubesats� may well turn out to be the twenty first
century’s “nobody needs more than 640kb,� and it’s possible that everybody
is wrong about how many of the launcher companies will survive in the long
term.

///////////////////////////////////////////
Good in a pinch: The physics of crimped connections

Posted: 12 Feb 2017 11:26 AM PST
http://bit.ly/2kh94DK

I had a friend who was an electronics assembly tech for a big defense
contractor. He was a production floor guy who had a chip on his shoulder
for the engineers with their fancy book-learnin’ who couldn’t figure out
the simplest problems. He claimed that one assembly wasn’t passing QC and a
bunch of the guys in ties couldn’t figure it out. He sidled up to assess
the situation and delivered his two-word diagnosis: “Bad crimp.� The dodgy
connector was re-worked and the assembly passed, much to the chagrin of the
guys in the short-sleeved shirts.

Aside from the object lesson in experience sometimes trumping education, I
always wondered about that “bad crimp� proclamation. What could go wrong
with a crimp to so subtly futz with a circuit that engineers were baffled?
How is it that we can rely on such a simple technology to wire up so much
of the modern world? What exactly is going on inside a crimped connection
anyway?

///////////////////////////////////////////
Okmulgee County HAM Radio Operators Ready To Help In Emergencies (Oklahoma)

Posted: 12 Feb 2017 01:38 AM PST
http://bit.ly/2kyB6Xz

Emergency management personnel met with a group of HAM radio operators in
Okmulgee on Saturday.

The idea is for the radio operators to use their hobby in the case of a
huge emergency, like the wildfires that burned in the county last year.