On Wednesday morning Spider was a fully functional balloon gondola. By Thursday night it was a collection of pieces packed into a couple crates, and a series of tubes. Jamil, Juan, Natalie, and I wroked furiously in between to effect the transition.
By next week, these pieces will hopefully have found their way to Princeton, where they will be integrated with the flight cryostat and detector systems (which will replace the shipping container being used as inner frame).
Elevation drive
Including defunct motor controller from a previously attempted design
Elevation encoder and rocker arm
The rotating star cameras
Gryoscopes and star cameras
Before disassembly
The rear of the gondola
Before disassembly
Port side view
Before disassembly
Starboard side view
Busy joint
With carbon fiber tubes, suspension cable (on turnbuckle), and sun-shield-tensioning strap
Another busy join
At the base
Labels
To ease reassebly, everything is coloured and labeled
Natalie takes the star camera apart
Mostly-empty floor
With ACS remaining
Reaction wheel
Once the floor is removed
Elevation drive disassembly
Step one: support from of inner frame with a crane
Partially disassembled scoop
So that the crate can move fully-vertical
Removed elevation drive
With motor, servo lock, and gear box
Elevation linear actuators
Jamil letting the crate down
With the elevation drive removed, the crate is free to move (or fall!)
Crate removal
It is then hung form its top, and lifted out of the gondola
Crate on the ground
With pillow block and rocker arm still attached
Juan takes the sun shields apart
Reaction wheel spokes
Spider in pieces
The cables
Spider in pieces
All the electromechanical parts
Spider in pieces
The bolts. With another similar bag for the sun shields
Spider in pieces
The tubes and floor and cart
Inside the crate
Juan rests. Soon we will pack this full of every bit of Spider that fits inside
Coloured tape
Partially packed
Chaos
Partially packed
Order
Leave a Reply