Introduction to Engineering Electronics

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Lecture 12 The Last One

• A Few Observations
• Course Surveys

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The Past Theodore Judah

• My Favorite RPI Alum from the 19th Century
• Compare with Washington Roebling, the builder of
  the Brooklyn Bridge

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Theodore Judah

• Rensselaer student in 1837
• Transcontinental Railroad Visionary 1826-1863
• Theodore Judah was known as "Crazy Judah" because
  of his single-minded passion for driving a
  railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains.
• His advocacy and enthusiasm for the project in
  California and in Washington, D.C., made possible
  America's first transcontinental route.
• Judah constructed the first railroad in
  California, helped organize the Central Pacific
  Railroad Co., surveyed routes across the Sierra
  Nevada, and served as the railroad's agent in
  Washington, D.C.
• Where can you find his picture?

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Theodore Judah

• Judah is given credit for developing the first
  practical plan for the Central Pacific RR.
• Financial backing for the RR came from the Big
  Four Mark Hopkins, Collis Huntington, Charles
  Crocker and Leland Stanford,
• Leland Stanford was born in Watervliet, NY in
  1824. It was called West Troy at the time. He and
  his wife founded a reasonably good school in
  California and named it after their deceased son.

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The Future?Iridium An Entertaining Failure or
Now on the Road to Success?

• What are some of the limitations of present
  mobile phone systems?
• One of the primary problems is that service tends
  to be limited to higher population areas.
• If you are a Sprint customer (in spite of the
  annoying adds), you have the coverage shown in
  this map.

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Iridium

• 1987 Two Motorola engineers envision a
  constellation of low orbiting satellites.
• 1990 The Iridium System is announced.
• 1995 FCC License granted
• 1998 Constellation of 66 satellites successfully
  launched.
• 1999 Chapter 11
• 2002 Licenses, etc. assigned to New Iridium
• Note Financing was several billion dollars

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Iridium Flares Fun With Satellites

• The Iridium satellites are relatively small
  telecommunications satellites in a low Earth
  orbit.
• Each satellite has three main mission antennas
  (MMAs), which are flat, highly reflective
  surfaces, that can reflect the Sun's rays to an
  observer on the ground when the geometry is
  correct.

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Iridium Flares Fun With Satellites

• The satellite's attitude is controlled so that
  the long axis remains vertical, with one MMA
  always pointing forwards. Given this knowledge of
  the attitude, together with the orbital position
  of the satellite and the Sun and observer's
  location, it is possible to calculate the angle
  between the direction to the observer from the
  satellite and the line of a perfect reflection of
  the Sun. This is the so-called "mirror angle" and
  determines the magnitude of the flare.

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Iridium Flares

• Heavens Above is an extensive website with
  information on tracking objects in space, notably
  including Iridium Satellites.

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Iridium Flares

• In the main Heavens Above webpage, select your
  location either exactly by longitude and latitude
  or from their extensive database.
• Choose United States, then Sycaway (where I live)
  Latitude 42.742, Longitude73.653, Elevation 
  121 m
• Select Iridium Flares for the Next 7 Days.

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Iridium Flares

• What will you see?
• Look at http//www.kevision.com/iridium.mov

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Your Future Life Long Learning

• Find some technical hobbies or interests that
  help put your education in context.
• Attend some lectures Watch particularly for the
  Vollmer Fries Lectures.
• Ask questions of faculty and staff you may
  never be so close to so much information as you
  are now.
• Make good use of services.

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Career Development Center

• Through Pathways, students may request a match
  with a Rensselaer alumni for a short,
  informational visit at their place of employment
  or, when in-person visits are not possible,
  contact with alumni mentors by telephone or
  e-mail is encouraged.

Dont Forget
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Course Surveys

• IDEA Survey These are the standard surveys used
  in all courses. The information helps to compare
  our courses with those elsewhere and to assess
  the development of new ideas and new faculty.
• My Survey More specific to this class

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Introduction to Engineering Electronics

• The End
• Best of Luck