With upgrades to the experiment complete, it’s time to start putting everything back together. In addition to basic reassembly, it’s time to start giving the experiment its final thermal treatment. This means covering things with various combinations of foam and shiny aluminized mylar. And lots of tape. […]
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On my return to BIT-land (after needing to spend a few days in Princeton) I find everything disassembled in preparation for upgrades: mainly to the rigidity of the mounting of the inner frame, the telescope inside the inner frame, and the optics box on the backside of the telescope. Plus installing some electronics like the new heater control box, fine guidance controller, and shiny new gyroscopes. […]
I arrived in Palestine about a week later than the Toronto crew (professor: Barth, grad students: Javier, John, and Susan, undergrads: Bryce and Michael). They had unpacked and tested everything in the thermal vacuum chamber and were starting to set up. I forgot to pack my camera, but I snapped a few photos on my phone. Most were for technical purposes, but a few are (maybe) of interest to people other than me. […]
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. […]