Helium Again, Text Update

Yesterday we filled with liquid helium, so should have a functioning instrument again on the weekend. In other news: Barth (who has yet to appear in a photograph) and Joseph sorted out some data downlink errors, Tyr was finishing the solar panel holders, Natalie and Brad debugged a misbehaving star camera, Greg was polishing his window shutter control, Tristan and Enzo invented a new method for dealing with data issues from the last flight, Elio babysat the cooling cryostat, Mark installed linux on his computer before he left Palestine, and Laura and I continued to upgrade the code—plus we made delicious vegan chili and cornbread, and probably people did a lot of things I’m not aware of, or can’t express in a single (though shockingly run-on) sentence.

Antennas outside

Because reception inside is poor

The shutter

Now with an extra limit switch

Ghost Mark

He disappears

Tyr grinding

Fan

To vibrate the cryostat

Tristan stretches

To insert the long fill tube into a large liquid helium dewar

Elio waits

For liquid to start pumping through the tube

Filling the cryostat

Rotate sun shields

Lie sun shields down

Cooling progresses

Melting on the exhaust tube means the boil-off rate has decreased. It's getting cold inside

Laura

Making a tweak to DSP code

Tyr is pumped

Inside the highbay

As the door is opened for night-time star camera tests

Balloon Experiment

Yes, sign, yes we are.

Blondie (aka "The Good")

Clamped pointing forward for scanning tests