MIOPSMIOPS
All ideas

Active window in the calendar

I shoot launches from KSC/CCSFS setting up remotes at the pads. May I make a suggestion for a software upgrade. As I'm sure you know, rockets are fickle beasts that launch when they're good and ready and not a moment before. Throw in the Florida weather and launch scrubs are pretty much the norm. May I suggest structuring the calendar to accommodate windows of activity, turning on for the opening of the window and going back to sleep at the close of the window ... only to wake up again on the following day for the same window. When a launch is scrubbed, regardless of the reason, because of the operations at the pads, we are unable to get to our equipment after the first scrub. With the current calendar configuration, I can set the MiOPs to open, say, 15 minutes before launch but if the launch scrubs, the MiOPs is still active. If it's rain that scrubs the launch, the rain and thunder trip the trigger and I can have thousands of pictures and a memory card full of nothing. If the launch occurs on the following day the card could be full and the camera will not trigger. For this reason, I think a time range for the MiOPs to be active would be a good upgrade for the launch photographers using your equipment. I'm sure there are other applications, as well. So, if, say, there's a communication satellite going to geosynch orbit, there can be anywhere from a 20 minute window to a 4 hour window depending on the mass of the satellite and the launch performance of the booster. Falcons have a narrow performance envelope so their windows are short but Atlas and eventually Vulcan, when they start adding solid boosters, can have upwards of a 4 hour window because they have a very broad thrust envelope . Usually the launch times to these high, synchronous orbits stay pretty much the same after a scrub. Varying windows after scrubs like launches to ISS shouldn't require any additionaal programming. The photographer just needs to keep the change in mind when setting the open and close of the window for the MiOPS.