With Hurricane Sandy over, the truck finally managed to arrive from Toronto with all the Spider gondola bits. After a day of work with the team here, we had a gondola again.
Storm damage
From earlier in the week. The collboration meeting and truck delivery schedule were disrupted by Hurricane Sandy
Things to do during a hurricane
If you're Bill's daughters, you make a dragon
The truck finally arrives
Opening the "inner frame"
Unpacking
Sasha and Jamil assembling the rolly-cart
Gondola tubes
Ready for assembly
Meanwhile, Natalie puts the rotating star camera together
Jamil attaches a side joint
Attaching a reaction wheel leg
Princetonians Jon and Anne try to adjust the fit
The side joint proved to be very tricky
A few pieces require some serious wrestling
Mega-group-action-shot
Jon works on the "turtle" joint
It's my favourite
Anne inserting bolts
There's a lot of this that needs to happen
Obligatory professor-working-in-the-lab shot
Bill joins in the fun
Awkwardly supporting a bar
I take a photograph before helping...
Finishing the scoop
The last little bit
Time to tighten
Once everything fits, all the bolts are tightened
Team tightening
With a total of five ratchet-wrenches of the correct size, this job goes very fast
The finished star cameras
Testing the strength of the frame
Jon and Anne hang out a little
Bill goes for a swing
Carrying the gondola frame onto the rolly-cart
I try to wrestle the the cart supports into place
It turns out this side doesn't fit at all
Natalie surveys the finished product
Installing the reaction wheel motor
Leveling bricks
While installing the reaction wheel spokes
Our day's work
Flipped sides
The floors were flipped to move electronics to the starboard side. The other side would be under cryostat vent lines that frequently drip condensation
Leave a Reply