Monthly Archives: November 2011

Free Stuff, Macs, Software

Free Software from Autodesk. Awesome!

Autodesk has been giving away free software for students and educators but now they are also expanding to veteran or unemployed individuals who have worked in architecture, engineering, design or manufacturing industries.

If you qualify you can get this amazing list of software to build your expertise and/or freelance some projects:

Go to this link to get registered:

Autodesk, is the developer of Autocad, 3DS Max, Maya and many other great software tools. I must add that they are moving towards the Mac platform. You can now have Autocad 2012 and Maya 2012 for Mac OS. Amazing!

AUTOCAD-2012
AUTOCAD 2012 (Mac OS, Windows)
Autodesk Maya 2012
Autodesk Maya 2012 (Mac OS, Windows)

 

Open Source Software

Cool Open Source Software (COSS)

I think the bright future of software (and hardware) is in the open development and free sourcing of the code, while paying attention to portability to multiple platforms.

To make money with open software you get paid by servicing the software (or maybe not so… but still…). This will make people use your software (because it’s free) and they will pay you to add features to it.

Anyway, here’s some of open software that I’ve been (really!) impressed with… I call it Cool Open Source Software or COSS:

Mathematical/Modeling Tools

Engineering Tools
Editing Tools
Embedded Electronics
Open Frameworks
Other

If you have open sourced software that you use and you feel it’s heading somewhere please send me a tweet @spacemig. Let the COSS movement begin! :=)

 

 

More resources

CubeSats

CubeSats Launched from the ELaNa III

Last Friday (October 28, 1129 UT) there were 5 #CubeSats launched from the #ELaNa III initiative. From the current information available at least 4 out of the 5 have been heard:

  1. AubieSat-1: a few packets received (no exact number)
  2. DICE: no information available
  3. Explorer-1[PRIME]: 38 packets received (by Oct 29)
  4. M-Cubed: a few packets received (no exact number)
  5. RAX-2:  553 packets received (by Nov 2)

If you want to track these satellites in real time there are lots of free software out there that can do it for you (even online, like the live telemetry site for RAX-2 [6]). Anyway, I use Gpredict [7] on my Mac OS X. I’ve added the following video if someone wants to check how to do it:

The initial TLE’s can be found in [1] and the updated TLE’s from the Celestrack website [2]. According to Mike Rupprecht (DK3WN) then this is the current TLE identification for the satellites [3]:

GROUP 1 >> (E1P, MCubed and AubieSat-1 in no specific order)
2011-061B
1 37850U 11061B   11305.98797322  .00000485  00000-0  51357-4 0    93
2 37850 101.7040 237.8951 0255440 280.0726  77.1486 14.77487531   660
2011-061C
1 37851U 11061C   11306.80057483  .00008923  00000-0  73263-3 0    86
2 37851 101.7025 239.0741 0255576 278.0555  79.1717 14.77525972   786
2011-061D
1 37852U 11061D   11306.52971894  .00011164  00000-0  91731-3 0    66
2 37852 101.6977 238.6724 0254624 278.8801  78.3646 14.77522609   745

 

GROUP 2 >> probably RAX-2
2011-061E
1 37853U 11061E   11307.13900013  .00009578  00000-0  78690-3 0    76
2 37853 101.6966 239.5631 0254823 277.2407  79.9896 14.77577082   836

 

GROUP 3 >> (probably DICE-F and DICE-G)
2011-061F
1 37854U 11061F   11306.52898599  .00014110  00000-0  11481-2 0    87
2 37854 101.6996 238.6806 0254637 278.7716  78.4718 14.77753179   735
2011-061G
1 37855U 11061G   11307.07070361  .00017333  00000-0  13957-2 0    77
2 37855 101.7015 239.4659 0256550 276.9147  80.4614 14.77747674   818


For more information check the oficial web sites for these CubeSats:


    

  1. AubieSat-1
    2. 

  2. DICE
    3. 

  3. Explorer-1[PRIME]
    4. 

  4. M-Cubed
    5. 

  5. RAX-2
    6. 



References:


    

  1. ELaNa III TLEs
    2. 

  2. ELaNa III TLEs from Celestrack (updated frequently)
    3. 

  3. TLE lottery – RAX-2 is OBJECT E
    4. 

  4. AMSAT: Amateur Radio CubeSats Launch
    5. 

  5. Mike Rupprecht (DK3WN) blog
    6. 

  6. Live telemetry site for RAX-2
    7. 

  7. Gpredict (real-time satellite tracking and orbit prediction)
    8.