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Quiet Skies EPO Project

1. Scope

The Quiet Skies project is for students in West Virginia and eventually across the nation. The aim of Quiet Skies is to promote student awareness of radio astronomy and radio frequency interference through an inquiry-based research project. NRAO staff are designing and prototyping a portable interference detection system for loan to schools. In collaboration with classroom teachers, we will develop curricula and an interactive web site to accompany the instrument.

The project is funded by a NASA-IDEAS grant.

2. Strategic Value

Details can be found at http://www.gb.nrao.edu/epo/ideas/ and http://www.gb.nrao.edu/epo/ideas/fact_sheet.htm. A copy of the proposal, meeting notes etc. are at: http://www.gb.nrao.edu/epo/ideas/internal.html

3. Personnel

• PI : Ron Maddalena
• Co-PI : Sue Ann Heatherly
• Project Engineer: John Ford

4. Work Packages

5. Milestones

• March 30: 1st Order of Parts; decide on synthesizer, filter, mixer
• April 6: Last PO sent out
• April 15: Design of circuit board for review
• April 21: PO for boards sent out
• May 1: Construction of 5 units starts
• May 30: First unit done and testing starts
• June 7: Testing done
• June 15: Revisions incorporated, all units finished.
• June 27: Teacher workshop
• July 15: Start construction on 10 more units
• Aug. 30: Version 1 of Web forms finished
• Sept. 1: Start lending out units to schools
• Nov. 1: Finish construction of all units

6. Resource Requests for Cycle 3 2005 (01 Apr 05 - 15 May 05)

• Electronics Division Request
  • John Ford (20%)
  • Gary Anderson (Minor consulting)
  • Galen Watts (Minor consulting)
  • Nathan Sharp (20%)
• Mechanical Division Request: None
• Scientific Services Division Request: None
• Software Development Division Request: None

7. Project Artifacts