Below, a copy of a message I sent as part of an account application at
a webhost.
Explanation of all addressees to all other addressees:
- Metawerx is an Australian provider of Java-based webhosting. Their
support seems good; Australia's timezones overlap Japan's.
- Orekit is an open source orbital mechanics package in Java. I have
already contacted its developers about KickSat. They seemed receptive.
- kicksat-gs is the mailing list for the KickSat ground station
network; this effort is just getting started.
- Zac Manchester is the project lead on KickSat.
- Project Persephone is taking the lead on evaluating Orekit for use
in predicting radio contact opportunities for KickSat and its sprites.
Message to Metawerx:
------------------------
I am looking at the 30-day free trial to see if an orbital mechanics
package (Orekit) can be hosted under some kind of interface (TBD) at
Metawerx. This is in support of the KickSat project (see Kickstarter),
and specifically of the ground station network -- we want to see if we
can webify support for tracking the Sprite picosatellites, using
Orekit to help predict opportunities for radio contact. If metawerx
looks good for this, longer-term hosting (through late 2013, possibly
later if launch schedule slips again) could be considered.