CDM stands for Concurrent Design Meeting. This was the MCubed team's first meeting for Fall 2009. All the MCubed sub-system leads were present to discuss, and come to a consensus, on how best to select a camera that will fulfill the mission objective. By the by, what's MCubed? It's a student lead initiative under the student group S3FL at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor to build, test, and launch a satellite which has a very specific objective - take a picture of a particular location from space and beam it back down. Sounds simple doesn't it...well, it's far from simple; of that, I can assure you.
The meeting was very very very very technical. The issue facing the MCubed team at the moment - well, at any rate, the issue of critical importance - is selecting a camera that will 'talk' to a sensor without any hitches and at the same time, survive the harsh conditions of space. And the fact that the launch date is fast approaching makes time a luxury that the team cannot afford!!
Once the meeting was underway, the leads did a good job of addressing every tiny detail - the back and forth between them was substantial. A lot of discussion was held over issues such as whether or not the selected camera would be able to sync with the sensor, whether the selection of a camera necessitates that the dimensions of the carrier satellite be altered and whether FPGA board would be a better choice for integration with the camera. The sensor is basically the 'black box' that analysis the data (in the case of a camera, this data is a picture taken by the camera).
Why all the hub-bub over a measly camera?? because the camera will decide whether all the effort that has gone into this project; under the able leadership of Kiril Dontchev, Michael Heywood, Rafael Ramos and the other sub-system team leads; will come to fruition . So, YES...the camera IS the pièce de résistance. And if the mission objective is met, you can bet the local pubs will see a lot of celebrations. (The project managers have promised to get drunk!)
ú