On the Eve of Canada Day 2016 (ie last year….these photos have been sitting unloved on my computer for a while), SuperBIT launched for its overnight test flight. Now that SuperBIT is approaching flight readiness for another flight, it’s about damn time I posted these. Like all launch days, it was full of frantic work, waiting, excitement, and dread. Then it launches and there is no longer anything you can do except send commands on a computer and hope everything works. There is a brief rest during ascent, in preparation for working all through the night once the a balloon reaches float altitude. […]
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SuperBIT launched today! We’re very excited, and very stressed. Nothing is broken…yet. More to come later. […]
After a few days of launch cancelations early in the day, we made a serious attempt yesterday. It was the best day we’d had yet. And Big Bill, the launch vehicle from Fort Sumner, had been brought in for some tried and true reliability. However, after going through all the motions, and driving out to the launch pad, the winds didn’t die down enough. We had to cancel again. Today looks even better, and BIT is currently out on the pad. Fingers crossed. […]
After our scrubbed launch attempt a couple weeks ago, we have not had another opportunity. Since then we have tweaked and tested BIT. But there’s a limit to how much non-invasive change can happen while maintaining launch-readiness. People also took a field trip to Houston one day and we all went home last week. […]
Friday was a marginal launch opportunity. We arrived a little before noon to get everything ready and do some “final” systems checks. Excitement and hopes were high, group photos were taken, I’s dotted and T’s crossed. We proceeded as far as taking BIT out to the launch pad, hoping for a safe gap in the weather. Sadly, there was too much chance of a storm to risk laying out the balloon and proceeding with launch. Late in they day, BIT was brought back to the highbay. To try again another day. […]
Most of this week, to me, has been a blur of sleep-deprived night shifts. During this time, Javier, Mathew, and Barth work furiously to test and fix code. Bill, Richard, Tim, and I help while trying to stay out of the way. Meanwhile, the day team has been finalizing the little details and arts and crafts to get BIT ready to fly. […]
Sunday was a big day for BIT. Starting in the morning, a big team was in for pre-compatibility tests. Before we fly, we will need to show that all our things work, and that they are compatible with NASA’s electronics for communication and balloon control. Pre-compatibility is a trial run to check for any problems before the final test. Overall it went quite well. One slightly sad note is that the old and loved launch vehicle, Tiny Tim, has been replaced due to needing increasingly frequent repairs. The lifts were smooth, but lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. After the tests, we had our first clear night in weeks. This gave us an opportunity to finally test the telescope and guidance systems with real stars. The afternoon was spent preparing, and then the late shift spent the night testing. […]
With fixes and upgrades complete, BIT was ready to be reassembled. Because this is (hopefully) the last time, lots of arts arts and crafts have started to get ready for flight. Mainly covering things with foam and aluminized mylar to keep them cool during the day and warm overnight. Javier’s mom, Kleina, joined us during this time. It was good to have non-scientist company, and she kindly cooked several excellent meals for us. My birthday also happened these days, and Bill got me a surprising present. […]
No field campaign is complete without its share of minor catastrophes. In this case, once assembly was finsihed and testing underway, a short circuit in a power wire cause some other circuit boards to release their magical black smoke, thus becoming non-functional. Stormy weather also made it impossible to looks at stars at night (needed to test the gondola’s pointing/tracking system). So we proceeded with a more complete disassembly to fix other issues like the heaters inside the telescope baffle. […]
While I was away on my day-trip to Fort Sumner, assembly of the telescope into the gondola structure was started. The goal was testing it in its flight configuration…and eventually flying. Asmebly continued over a couple days, with intermixed stretches of testing. […]