There's a few things to report:
Uni Stuff
First off I've made a very brief start on my individual project,that is a feasibility study of fitting a nuclear reactor on an aircraft. At the moment it's just a contents page so I have an idea of what to cover and a little bit of an introduction. It's still quite an interesting project and there are many sceptics who I can have a good debate (argument) with about it all.
Aswell as this project we have another year long project, although this one is a group design project. The task is to conceive and design a fractionated space craft (one where each part of the space or even individual spacecraft has its own unique role) to perform as task or service of our choosing. For this we've decided to create a defence satellite constellation which is able to provide on demand high resolution ground imaging and closer to real time surveillance all at a lower cost than current technology. The plan is simple enough that there are 2 separate constellations, one for controllers which maintain a geo-stationary orbit (the satellite will stay over the same bit of earth at all times) and one which will be in low earth orbit. the GEO constellation is for conrtoller sats which will keep constant communication with the surveillance sats, these are used to maintain a good coverage of the earth and allow for information to be passed to any part of the globe. The surveillance sats have a standby orbit where they simply orbit the earth by a flight path as determined by the controller sats. However, should it be required the sat can break orbit and descend into an elliptical orbit allowing it to get closer to earth and potentially communicate with earth directly. By being closer the resolution of the images are improved and communication time is reduced.
It's only in the earliest of stages but the project seems to have alot of meat in it that we can get stuck into, its also quite an interesting concept which, as far as I know, is not currently employed.
In addition to these projects I still have x2 nuclear units, x1 maths unit and x1 modelling & simulation unit. Theres no slow welcome back for us it's straight in and on with the work! Assignments have been set. That said over the past 2 weeks I've been partly pre occupied with PASS and similar bits of organisation. This week we ran an icebreaker event for the 1st years; it's an important event as it not only gives the 1st years a good opportunity to meet with their coursemates and their PASS leaders but also the success of the event will dictate the attendance to the sessions for the remainder of the year. The event was one primarily of my design which was to design and build crude polystyrene models to be used in a smoke tunnel so that flow around the model could be visualised. Unfortunately I had to miss most of the event to purchase the prizes, and while the event went ok I can't help feeling it could've been better. Overall I think it was an improvement over what has been run in previous years but if run smoothly it would've been even better. Here are a few pics from the event:
Bike Stuff
As I mentioned today I have won the competition!!! And will be touring all over the place taking photos of road signs and the bike. It's going to be action packed and will last 7 days, which is alot of riding! Someone suggested I should put the photos up on facebook or something as I get them.. it would be quite cool if I put them on a blog like this so you could be emailed and maybe even follow me on a map over the course of a day!
Anyway, since the bike clutch has been giving me hell for a good while and I hadn't gotten round to looking at it, I finally looked today and not 10 minutes later it was completely sorted and the clutch is not better than when I bought the bike!!! - So much so that I look forward to riding it to uni at the next opportunity! Also with all that travelling I've decided to buy a top box and rack, unfortunately I don't think I can afford to keep them once I come back but its better than having a heavy bag on your back for hours everyday. I'm considering buying some touring boots but in honesty I'm not sure I can find where I can steal the money from in my already stretched budget!! But all in all once the rack arrives I'm pretty much set to go! Have been looking at when is best to set off, for me it's probably Oct 10th but it doesn't seem like Claire will be able to do that week so it may be the week of Oct 17th instead. We shall see...
Car Stuff
With all the other things going on I haven't had chance to do much on the car, but it has had a wash!! and is now very shiny.. there's a few scratches and marks to T-cut out yet. My plan for the car this weekend is to get the fuel gauge working. On Monday I should be receiving a call about the part I ordered and will be able to do the crankshaft pulley and have another shot at starting the engine. My aim is for the car to be completed by next weekend sort of time, but we'll have to see.
Last time I was by the car I remembered to finally take a photo!This is a pic of the crank locking pin that has caused all of the recent troubles!!!
Notice the bend.. which is not supposed to happen!!
Other Stuff
Other than that Rosie has been for her innoculations and the vet seemed genuinely afraid of her. She didn't really enjoy the experience and was a bit moody with me after as I had to hold her still whilst the vet was stabbing her with a needle! Also, to our surprise she is micro chipped, but not yet registered to me. She's due her 2nd set of injections in just under 2 weeks time. She's having to wear her vet cone all the time now and I had to pay out £15 for some cream because she thinks chewing on her leg is a good idea and me and the vet disagree! Shes on the mend and still looks as ridiculous as ever with the cone on!
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