Category Archives: Community/Partners

Gemini 3 Launch Recording

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I was at a Ham Radio picnic a couple of weekends ago where I had the good fortune to chat with Greg J.  We discussed Mach 30’s mission and goals, and the role that public interest in space flight plays in space programs.  This got us talking about the race to the moon and how much interest the public had in those early days of space flight.

One very interesting tidbit of that conversation was that Greg J. had an old audio recording he made when he was young of the countdown and liftoff of one of the Gemini flights.  He has been kind enough to share that recording with me as an mp3, and I wanted to pass it along.  The recording is from Gemini 3, the first manned mission of the Gemini program.  It is a great recording and has a quite different feel from today’s countdowns.  It is less sterile, more real almost.  Listen very early on for the commentary on the range safety officer and the destruct armaments.  Many thanks to Greg J. for the great conversation and the copy of the recording.

Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Project: Hackerspace tour of the mid west

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Purpose:  Community building, Getting our name out, Capacity demonstration/test

Description:  Mach 30 board members schedule visits to various hackerspaces.  These visits allows Mach 30 to advertize to their target demographic (makers, space enthusiasts, etc.).  Also the concept of bringing some type of demo project that would involve participation from the hosting space’s members.

A similar tour was done by Noisebridge member Mitch:http://blog.noisebridge.net/2010/08/04/mitchs-midwest-workshop-tour-of-h…

Possible Destinations:

OCD — Detroit, MI
Mt. Elliot Makerspace – Detroit, MI
I3 — Detroit, MI
A2 MechShop — Ann Arbor, MI
AHA — Ann Arbor, MI
LVL1/Actors Theatre – Louisville, KY
LVL1 — Louisville, KY
Hive13 — Cincinnati, OH
BloomingLabs — Bloomington, IN
Arch Reactor — St. Louis, MO
KC Mini Maker Faire / CCCKC — Kansas City, MO
Quad Cities Co-Lab Hackerspace — Quad Cities, IA/IL 
PS:1 — Chicago, IL
Madison BarCamp — Madison, WI
Sector67 – Madison, WI

Project ideas:

  • Weather balloon camera to space:
    • Set up in the morning (photo document the days activities)
    • Launch balloon (photo document the days activities)
    • Track progress throughout the day (photo document the days activities)
    • Enlist the help of members to chase and recover camera package
    • Download pictures and compile presentation by adding todays photos to existing template
    • Evening briefing about Mach 30 and include pics from todays acticvities
    • Catered Dinner?
  • Portable satelliete tracking ground station
    • Set up ground station (photo document the days activities)
    • Determine the availbility of trackable satellite passes (photo document the days activities)
      • viable passes: demo the tracking system (photo document the days activities)
      • if there are no viable passes, run a pre-recorded simulation
    • Compile presentation by adding todays photos to existing template
    • Briefing about Mach 30 including pics from todays activities
  • Demo firing of hybrid rocket engine
  • Other ideas?