Calling all Citizen Scientists!

The Citizen Scientist blog site has been moved!

Surf4Fun — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 08:44:23 GMT

This blog will continue at https://citizenscientist.us Reason for the move: Time for the Citizen Scientist, me, to move on from Microsoft. Science for me is a passion now, Microsoft, Google and other large companies are very supportive of science but that is not their main job. Microsoft builds great tools for the scientist, hobbyist and students to use for exploration of the world and universe that surrounds us. Azure, Hololens, and the whole Microsoft research team works to improve the world. Microsoft is a great place to work at, and it has been a great adventure for me. I have traveled in great style, worked on interesting projects and help solved big world problems. For this Microsoft has been great and I appreciate it in every way. As a professional if you get a chance to work for Microsoft, take it, the company is one of the best to work for. Stocks on the other hand... Well there are always problems that are opportunities. My main goal now it to work toward creating systems to support humans on the surface of Mars. Not an easy goal, and when I listen to conversations I have at the Institute of Technological Advancement, at UCLA, it does seem like science fiction. It isn't, it is science fact. Other items under research are: 1. What happened to the starfish on the pacific coast of North America (and yes I know about the wasting disease, but ALL of the starfish disappeared.) 2. Rewriting my copy of Euclid, if you are an Euclidean, then you get this, otherwise, well go over to the new blog link. 3. Cleaning up my office, likely new life forms will be present there. So zoom over to https://citizenscientist.us (The site is live right now, but I am working on getting to work well on mobile, and build content.)

snapLogic, an easy way to connect to data in any cloud!

Surf4Fun — Thu, 19 May 2016 13:39:45 GMT

snapLogic at the OC Big Data meetup

I attended the OC Big Data last night and the snapLogic presenter: Ravi Dharnikota did a great job showing the audience what a fantastic product snapLogic is! Clearly, if you are worried about Cloud Vendor Lock, then snapLogic is a tool you want on your side! snapLogic is one of those rare product that interact with cloud and is designed to allow high level users to customize their interaction with the cloud data. The snapLogic web sites is at: snapLogic , use this link to request a demo today and see for yourself what a great product it is. So let's take a look what got me excited about this product: High Level user customization!

User interface

Visual controls, like the logic controls provided by snapLogic, snap together easily. This means power users can implement the data processes they need when they require the modifications. This lowers developer costs and gives the power users a sense of power and control. The logic controls in snapLogic are fully customizable by developers using javascript. The design system works on HTML5/JavaScript and that means that the end user can use the Operating System they like. The interface has been on mobile devices since 2014! (As you know I love the idea of developing on the phone!) [caption id="attachment_23925" align="alignleft" width="443"] snap Logic GUI[/caption]

Learn More

If you want to view the Microsoft Webinar next weeks, sign up at: Connect to Azure Data Services and HDInsight Faster With Self-Service Integration

What does it cost to get a gram of mass to stationary Mars Orbit?

Surf4Fun — Mon, 16 May 2016 20:15:55 GMT

The question is: What does it cost to get a gram of mass to stationary Mars Orbit?

Now what are the shipping charges to Mars? Recently India put a Mars Mission into transfer orbit for around $73,000,000. The launch costs were low due to the efficiencies India brings to every project, The ISRO Mars Orbiter named: Mangalyaan, set the standard for the minimum cost to injection into Mars orbits. The Mangalyaan science package masses 15 kilograms or 15,000 grams. This means that the cost per gram to stationary orbit around Mars for the Mangalyaan is $4900/gram. Yes, you read that correctly: $4,900/gram. Think about this: a skittle candy weighs 1 gram on average, so the cost of a single skittle candy would be $4,900 US/gram. To get your skittle candy to the surface of Mars would be even more expensive, that would include the cost of atmospheric de-acceleration devices like parachutes or cushioning systems and then take a percentage of the load that the skittle would take up. The cost equation might look like:

((Mass of Skittle + ∑sum all of the other objects mass going to the surface of Mars)/Number of items)

The cost of getting from Mars Orbit to the surface of Mars will likely be expensive. Unlike our Mars Orbital Computational and Storage Cloud, getting those sensors to Mars is going to be much more expensive, but the floor is $4800 US/Gram.

What does this mean?

Things will need to be produced on Mars using Mars Resources, what would the early production systems that grind and shape the Basalt rock on the planet Mars. This would save money over shipping products from Earth. What would this robot look like? Let me see any of your diagrams about these robots. So if you have robots constructing construction or sensor technologies, this means that they will need control from machine intelligence on orbit with input from Earth. Much of the processing could be done on the Robot, but any extra items used in processing also require increase the costs, costs that could be used for improved frameworks, power systems and so forth.

Conclusion

The thought here is this: What does the Mars environment look after 20 years or 10 Holman transfer orbits? What would happen if parts of the systems could be built using on Mars products? Sensors, wheels, all have parts that could be constructed on Mars using remotely controlled robots that have autonomous features that also use the Azure Stack on orbit for control.

Azure in Space: What would a cloud system look like on Mars?

Surf4Fun — Wed, 11 May 2016 13:16:28 GMT

Cloud System on Mars Orbit

[caption id="attachment_23835" align="alignleft" width="100" class="left; width="] Satellite to Mars Liftoff![/caption] What would a cloud system look like on Mars? In this case the cloud system would be like AWS, Azure, BlueMix, Google, Rackspace, etc. Just to be clear: Mars doesn't have light fluffy clouds like on Earth. If Mars did have water based clouds, humans would likely have made the technology to get there, but there isn't any surface water. In this intermittent series on Azure in Space, I would like to kick off the series by thinking about the idea of an on-orbit data center for use on Mars. Now the use of Azure or other cloud technology is beneficial on Earth because of it's flexibility. Being flexible in Mars orbit, where the distances are between 55 million Kilometers and 401 million kilometers, from Earth. Right now, JPL and other space agencies are having to guess at what the requirements will for data processing and data transmission in future exploration scenarios. More data processing on orbit means grams saved on going to the surface of Mars, atmospheric entry from orbital velocities requires heavy equipment, with multiple of grams of mass required for each gram of scientific instrumentation. Each gram, using the ISRO Mangalyaan Mars express costs around $4800 US 2016/gram, but that does not include atmospheric entry systems. So lowering any weight on the landing component is valuable, how valuable, I am not sure, if you know please comment.

Thinking:

But as a scientist you would need to transmit data from your science sensor on the surface of Mars. Direct to Earth is possible. Rovers on Mars are using the MRO and Mars Odyssey to communicate indirectly with Earth. Complex processing requires transmission to Earth and then signals back to Mars, could some of this processing be moved to Mars? What does that look like?

Are there any comparable Earth Satellites or Orbitals

One candidate might be the Iridium communication systems that is used with IOT on Earth.
The current Iridium satellite system consists of an array of 66 satellites or orbitals and will be replaced by the next generation satellite: Iridium Next.
The current Iridium system uses the same chip that the early Mac Power Book used, except the chip used in the Iridium satellite is rad-hardened for space. In fact that might be Mac Power Book used in the movie, "Independence Day" to defeat the aliens, so that is something right?
Case study of the Iridium satellite system might reveal interesting concepts
Certainly could experiment with satellite control of an "IOT" system would be interesting

Radios:

In the satellites like the Mars Recon Orbital (MRO) uses software defined radios, which in it's time was difficult to build. In a later blog we will look at one using the nRF24L01, C-code and a remote control toy! The path of this blog is to demonstrate how to use Mesh Radios with a number of sensors. The reason? But what happens when newly designed, low cost sensors are launched. How do you design a radio system that can handle changing design environments, computer languages, circuits and so forth. Improvements in transceiver and management systems change rapidly and often in ways we don't know will happen. This design philosophy will be applied to the Computational section. Also, when humans arrive data transmissions will increase, tweets from Mars will be an important of the communications right? Currently, the MRO satellite has transmitted over 200 terabytes of information since it stabilized in Mars orbit. So it is safe to assume that the amount of data will increase. What do we do with all of this data? Much of the data could be relayed to Earth, but some of the information could be processed in Mars Orbit. So how will the new network of Mars to Earth and back again satellite communication software architecture look like? As I have said, later blog, will discuss the idea of Software Defined Radios.

Background:

[caption id="attachment_23836" align="alignleft" width="220" class="left"] Highly mobile Mars Sensor![/caption] There are now, with the successful and efficient launch of India's ISRO's Mangalyaan satellite, 5 operational satellites in orbit around Mars: 3 US, 1 European Space Agency (ESA) satellite, 1 ISRO Mangalyaan satellite. The star of the show in 2016 is the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and will have fuel to maintain orbit stability through the 2030s. That means that the replacement product should be in the pipeline. I believe that the communications component may be separated from the science mission oriented satellites in the future. If so, then the ISRO Mars Express, which just entered Mars Orbit, looks to fill the communication from science sensors to Earth, or make efficient use of the MRO satellite. The ISRO Mangalyaan Satellite is a smaller satellite and points to a kind of platform that might augment the MRO mission in the 2020s. The Mangalyaan mass is 15 kilogram, and cost $73,000,000 US to get from the surface of the earth to the orbit on Mars. Using the estimated cost of ISRO launch and the mass of the vehicle to help with sizing during our design phase. Using the body design of the ISRO Mangalyaan satellite, it's mass equation, then this gives us a platform for imagination. But over a few blog entries, let's take a look at how the Azure cloud architecture could be used on Mars. I will use the Azure based software architecture, however, feel free to reach out with any links you might have a similar discussion using AWS, Bluemix or Google. The cost, energy and mechanical constraints are important for the part of the discussion.

Conclusion:

This is the first of an intermittent series on Azure in Space. Keep an eye out for more as time goes on. In the next two blogs, we will investigate what the software architecture might look like and the develop a software defined radio system, likely using the Intel Edison board as it has Bluetooth and WiFi on the same board.

//Build 2016 Skype Reaction: This is a tool for innovators

Surf4Fun — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 18:25:03 GMT

With the announcement that SpaceX Red Dragon package is going to Mars in 2018, time to innovate and get your project on board. How do you do that, I have no idea, but I do know if you wait till you find out if you can get on board, it will be too late. The 2018 Holman Transfer Orbit has a very small window, March 2018 to June 2018. You will need to get your package ready for system integration at Space X by Feb. 2018 at the latest, and likely even earlier. Skype is going to be your tool of innovation, linked to MS Project or using Smart Sheets. Why is Skype for Business a tool for innovators? I discuss this in my //Build Reaction Video: Here is a back story for the Mars Airplane: Let's say you want to compete in an online hackathon to build an aircraft to fly in the atmosphere of Mars. With the announcement that SpaceX will fly the "Red Dragon" to Mars when they test their heavy launch system, this means that you could be first person to do controlled flight on Mars. Not re-entry flight like the Rovers, etc. but controlled flight using a digital control system. The aircraft might be a quad copter or a fixed wing aircraft. Copters have never flown at the atmospheric pressure on Mars, fixed wing aircraft have flown at Martian atmospheric pressures. Using Skype you can generate tools that allow to work with your online hackathon buddies. This means your team can be more diverse than a team made up at a physical hackathon. You will need software types, but you need packaging for items that will be in vacuum, a mechanical and aerospace engineer. Would be a good idea to have a scientist or one of the team to be a designated scientist or science officer. What does the designated scientist do? 1. Determination of the science package 2. Attempt to use engineering sensors where possible 3. Ensuring that the scientific instrumentation will be calibrated (metrology) 4. Makes any decisions that are required during atmospheric flight or design decision making systems for opportunistic science observations during flight. 5. Any tasks that do not fall under engineering or carrier extraction from Red Dragon or Vehicle Flight or described here 6. Update Project tools 7. Generate appropriate tests for vehicle Software workers work consist of engineering team members who can code, but there should be a designated software person who makes the final decision from team inputs. Software workers are responsible for: 1. Software architecture both on atmospheric flight article, carrier software interfaces, Cloud processing 2. Mars Data Center utilization and mission related processing 3. Quality control 4. Version control 5. Closeout software phase Passover to flight team 6. Update Project tools 7. Generate appropriate tests for vehicle Electrical Engineering 1. Power 2. Power conditioning 3. Hardware Architecture 4. Hardware interface with Red Dragon systems 5. Hardware interfaces with device carrier for break and make connections during loading to spacecraft and removal on Mars (only for initial landing) 6. Issue post flight reports 7. Update Project tools 8. Generate appropriate tests for vehicle Mechanical Engineering 1. Device Carrier 2. Material selection for atmospheric space craft 3. Work with Aerospace engineer on Mars Atmospheric Vehicle design 4. Device fold up 5. Device Deployment 6. Monitor structure during flight 7. Issue post flight reports 8. Update Project tools 9. Generate appropriate tests for vehicle Aerospace engineering 1. Design or select Mars Atmospheric Vehicle design 2. Develop device carrier design 3. Work with SpaceX and relay information to team 4. Document overall project 5. Act as Project manager using the appropriate online tools

Links for Intel-Microsoft Collaboration in Phoenix

Surf4Fun — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 11:13:03 GMT

Welcome attendees to the Intel-Microsoft collaboration in Phoenix, AZ. Here are some links that you may find useful. I recommend that you have the following link open on both your phone and development computer. Link: Azure Edison instructions The following video will help you understand what the workflow looks like: Link to Fast Video that shows the workflow in Azure These links are useful if you want to view the raw data in your Azure account: IOT Device Explorer Link: Link: Azure device explorer Azure Table Storage Link: Link: Azure Explorer

Build 2016: Power BI embedded reaction!

Surf4Fun — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 11:18:51 GMT

Power BI Embedded, confusing name for me right? Does this mean I run Power BI Embedded on an Intel Edison board? No, of course not. Power BI Embedded uses Azure, instead of Office 365, and allows you to modify existing code, apps, web sites, mobile apps, to include interactive data displays. So my reaction is: Nice. For example if I had a number of apps running at a hospital for doctors and the nursing staff, then this kind of thing saves time and testing. The Doctors and nursing staff will appreciate the human oriented design you bring to your apps and you don't have to waste a lot of time writing new code, writing new tests and so forth. So take a look at my instant video on the Power BI embedded. For a more complete tutorial see the work that my good friend and new father, Mostafa Elzoghbi (nicely done Mostafa), by following the links below the video. And here is the links to the three part series to get you started with Power BI Embedded: Power BI Embedded 3 Part Series See the post for the other two links in the series as well.

Visual Studio: C and C++ command line complile, 2 of 8

Surf4Fun — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 09:59:44 GMT

Node.js and C++, well I will get to it in one of the series, but C++ can be used in Node.JS. It's powerful when you do combine the two. But in this initial series is to get you up to speed with C and C++ using Visual Studio. There are a few issues with C in general compared to say using NPM or Node.js since the initial design of C was on barely connected machines. JavaScript is designed in the opposite manner, all things connected. In "C" and "C++" we will use the tools in Visual Studio, and that is where I am going with this series of 8 videos. T So let's take a look at the video, stick with it till the end and I think you will find benefit.

Visual Studio: C and C++, part 1 of 8

Surf4Fun — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 09:32:58 GMT

There are so many computer languages, especially for the citizen scientist. From FORTRAN to MatLab to Wolfram to Microsoft Machine Language to C to Node.js. How to get started with science that uses computational power to solve problems. This is different than computer science, as a scientist you are not interested in complex or hard to maintain software. Fancy user interfaces that look elegant but are confusing aren't for you. Jeremy Foster has challenged me to create a FORTRAN Bot that uses Skype. An interesting challenge. One that I accept. It won't be easy, the last time I used FORTRAN was in the days of DOS on the PC and it was UNIX based. Windows 3.1 was a thing. But ok, I am going to stand up a FORTRAN server, and see what happens. After I complete my C and C++ plans, which may take quite a few weeks, so be patient. Intel has challenged me to actually use the Intel XDK, which is a great tool, but it only uses JavaScript. Fine by me, because you got to know javascript these days. So we will also look at ECMAScript, which is the basis of Node.js, etc. So being focused on ancient languages like C++ and C is difficult in this atmosphere. But I will persevere. What about interfaces, you do need interfaces, and the beautiful user interfaces that XAML offers even the busy citizen scientist is exceptional where you use the graphics on board the local machine, from a Jumbotron to the Raspberry Pi I can run XAML. Or generate your web pages can be an unique but consistent interface using ASP.NET. But there are so many interesting tools like Web Express. Here is a the first video of 8 parts (so I have seven to go!):

Intel Edison: Collaborating with Intel

Surf4Fun — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 11:53:30 GMT

I have been working with Intel in a collaboration for the past two months, and they are great to work with. New ideas, new ways of doing things and new ways to use words. For the latter it is interesting to hear how other large corporations kind mutate language to map to their own goals and internal structures. We are focused on showing how the Intel Edison and the Intel XDK are great tools for the hobbyists, new hardware designer and corporate designer. Intel is very interested in working with all of the software companies like Microsoft, IBM, Google, and naturally Microsoft is interested in working with Intel. For me it is clear that Intel is open to all of these corporations, as well as new ideas from small companies like Let me know if you have used the Intel Edison board, and I will be adding videos on using C in Visual Studio with the goal for you to be able to use the code on your Edison for scientific work. Note that there is a change in the title from the pretentious: Secret Microsoft Communications to the more exciting: Citizen Scientist. I will reveal the reasons for the change in personal brand over the next few blogs. [bing_translator]