I already mentioned it several times : we’re involved in the preparation of a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) on satellite communications.
We’ll it is getting more and more real.
The French speaking session is due to open in June 2015 and registration is now open:
And here is a shortcut to the teaser
You know the “image d’Epinal” (traditional picture) where Evolution is pictured starting from the four-leg ape to the bipedal human being.
It is time to revisit the concept from the standpoint of a Ku band fly away antenna
(the last two are straight from our lab, the first one goes uncredited … so far).
These days, we’re really busy: students project, new hardware in our lab and the work is ongoing on the SatCom MOOC.
To ease the pressure a little 🙂 here is some promotional material.
Enjoy !
Short title for a long subject. ACM stands for Adaptive Coding and Modulation. It is one of the landmark of the DVB-S2 (compared to DVB-S).
Want to know more ? Read about Adrien and Juan Pablo presentation or check their e-report (the e-report will be kept online for some times but not forever).
Their presentation (and others) took place on 17th and 18th of December to conclude Project #1 “Basic Techniques”.
Car manufacturers are bragging about it: the connected car is for tomorrow.
We made it today :
It has everything you ever dreamed of: broadband internet access, anywhere.
Well, to tell you the truth … it is not exactly *the* connected car. We keep the actual prototype hidden in a secret place. That car is the only shelter that Gustavo and Ke found, while doing some antenna measurements.
Yes, today is a rainy day in Toulouse.
Keep on going lads.
Yes, winter is at our door steps.
The proof is the ice we removed from the cover of the antenna trailer.
Which brings Today’s quote
“Winter is coming, icicles are shining, tough times for link budgeting”.
Santa is a bit early this year, but this is all good and we won’t complain.
We were donated a Ku-band fly-away antenna (see below). A lot of thank yous to our generous sponsor (they know who they are !)
Together with the AvL drive away antenna (see in an earlier post), our Ku-band capabilities are up to date (not mentioning another drive away we have … more news on that later).
The next stage is to go to Ka-band and complete our line-up of experimental facilities. On that very topic, I can briefly tell that we’re heading the right way. Stay tuned.
Our students’ project (see a prior post on the return of Sputnik) goes well. Joaquin and Matias installed the Pumpkin cubesat kit – without a hassle apparently – and they wrote their first hello world program. Except that – in this case – hello world is a blinking led.
Their assignment is to design an RF beacon. This is the first step with an optical beacon.
Check out their forge for the latest progress reports.
Margaux and Julien are SCS 2014-2015 students. Their “Basic Techniques” project is about receiving and measuring geo satellite beacons by means of software defined radio.
Isabelle completed her degree last year and – with her team mate – was involved on that very project. She’s going “back to school” to give Margaux and Julien a hand so they can push forward these activities.
Sputnik is alive (or close to).
We have received our Pumpkin cube sat kit (see below).
As the kit is quite bare (and we wanted it to be so), Joaquin and Matias – two SCS students – are busy developing a sputnik-like RF payload.
They have just started and we’ll keep you posted about their progress.