So I haven’t written a post for a while, but that’s only because nothing particularly interesting has happened for a while. (That and because there’s some old pictures sitting unloved and unuploaded on my other camera at home.) But interesting stuff is starting to happen again, and this is the beginnings of it.
First we got some really cool new solar cells last week. They’re small and efficient. They also have a composite balsa wood–hex cell frame that weighs approximately nothing.
BLAST’s computer box is also finished now, as Pedro (our summer student) and I did a bit of machining yesterday. The shop gave us a bad heat sink. It was wrong in two ways, but one of the wrongs allowed us to fix the other. Handy. The cute folded aluminum box contains two computers each with a BLASTbus PCI card, power switching circuitry, two ethernet switches, and a watchdog board that swaps control between the computers. We use solid state drives, so the whole thing is unpressurized.
Finally, cables are being made and stuff is getting attached to the gondola. We want to be able to point BLAST in a couple weeks. This is a very exciting phase, with lots of tedious work that needs doing. Excitement is winning over tedium—for now. And I say this having made over 1000 solder joints this morning.
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- Random picture: somebody has been out enjoying spring
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- Enzo’s/Don’s/Laura’s flowers less so…probably because it’s night
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- The mysterious “somebody” was bored and took this excellent picture
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- The finished computer box
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- Inside the computer box, you can see the custom finless heat sink
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- The bottom of the computer has nothing particularly interesting on it
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- At the bottom of the computer box lives the watchdog circuit
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- The computer in its (approximate) home
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- The computer’s neighbour: the ACS, complete with upside-down labeled BOB
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- Their happy neighbourhood
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- Pedro is hard at work making cables
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- Natalie shows off the magnetometer on its spearlike arm
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- …and she doesn’t hesitate to threateningly brandish her magneto-spear
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- Picture of the pivot, just because it was hanging there
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- Crate of the ultra-cool solar panels
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- The panel’s back shows off its balsa wood–hex cell frame
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- The front of the panel shows off the business end
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- Natalie models the front side of the panel. You’re not allowed to see above her waist.
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- She similarly models the rear of the panel
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- …then I catch her peaking
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- …which causes her to hide better, so I take this out of some misguided spite
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