Small Satellites

The annual Small Satellite Conference has come and gone; alas.

My supervisor, Quinn, offered to foot the registration fee to get me in on this nerdly-action. I spent several hours over the last few days sitting in a darkened auditorium listening to scientists and engineers report the merits of their latest and greatest small satellite ventures. Some of them peaked my interest (e.g. a magnetic mapping of mars mission), but most of them were way over my head (Deriving FPGA Based Custom Soft-Core Microprocessors for Mission Planning Algorithms, anyone?)

There were exhibits, too. One particularly clever booth featured a woman standing by a small oven continuously producing fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. The smell alone was enough to make you lose your resistance and listen to whatever sales-pitch they had in store.

And finally, there was food, catered by The Copper Mill. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and every snack time in between. Last night's dinner (chicken enchiladas, fruit, jalapeño potatoes) was served at the Celebration Centre, along with free rides throughout the park. I went on the skycoaster (the one that makes you soar like Superman).