by joe.latrell | Jul 31, 2019 | News
It has taken a bit longer than planned but we now have a class 10,000 cleanroom for assembling our PocketQube satellites. The basis of the room is a four foot by four foot hydroponic growing container. It is made out of very thick mylar walls. We added a DIY air...
by joe.latrell | Jul 21, 2019 | News, Spaceflight
Fifty years ago, I was recovering from staying up late to watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin perform their EVA on the Moon. It was amazing to watch on our new 25 inch color television, even if the images coming from the Moon were in black and white. The world...
by joe.latrell | May 19, 2019 | Discovery, Mars, News
My friend Joel Jackel came down from new York with his Mark Watney costume. It took him a year to make it. We found a good location to take some shots and then with a little bit of editing, made it look like Mars. It was a fun photo shoot. Going to send this image on...
by joe.latrell | May 4, 2019 | News
One of the tenants we have here at Mini-Cubes is one that we have followed for years. Make space available to everyone. Sometimes that means we get to launch something really incredible. We will be launching a copy of Svetoslav Alexandrov’s book, I, Virtual Astronaut....
by joe.latrell | May 3, 2019 | News, Spaceflight
This morning Blue Origin successfully flew their 11th space mission. The spacecraft zoomed to over 346,000 feet in a picture perfect launch. It was incredible to watch. For Mini-Cubes this has been a good day. One of the experiments onboard proved out some design...
by joe.latrell | May 1, 2019 | News
Alan Boyle has a good writeup on the latest Blue Origin flight scheduled for tomorrow. While not directly related to Mini-Cubes, I worked on the NanoLab design. I created a 3D printed flame resistant casing for the experiment for Teachers in Space. I also designed the...
by joe.latrell | Apr 26, 2019 | News
My apologies for not putting together something sooner. I had hoped to have a nice video to show but my seasonal allergies have taken their heavy toll and I have been unable to function at the level you have come to expect. Hopefully, this will be short lived and we...
by joe.latrell | Apr 17, 2019 | News
Recently, I spent half a day with Dick Wanner, a reporter for the Ephrata Review. The article finally appeared in the paper and I couldn’t be happier with the result. It was a fun interview. I loved showing off where we are and what we plan to do. You can check...
by joe.latrell | Apr 3, 2019 | News
This video update tells you a little bit about the various parts used for the structure of the Discovery PocketQube satellite. All the components are made out of Windform XL 2.0. This 3D printed material makes for super strong parts that have already been tested in...
by joe.latrell | Mar 24, 2019 | News
Tracey and I took some time away and visited my daughter Megan in Houston, Texas. While we were there Megan took us to Johnson Space Center. It was a great trip with some amazing experiences.