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.
Droopy balloon
Being deflated after crew chief launch training.
Javier climbs into the boat
He doesn't fit quite so well as Susan did.
Bryce learns about the wonders of taping
The bottom side is especially fun!
Light sealing of the optics box
Aluminum tape over all the cracks
Light sealing on the other side
Group action shot
Finishing up the optics box/telescope before reinstalling on the middle frame.
Finished optics box
Bryce gave it an eye.
FInished optics box
More finished optics box
This is for future documentation.
Battery attaching in the dark
For other reasons, the lights happened to be off for exactly the duration of this work.
Group action shot
Testing and foaming
Thumbs up to tracking the fake star on the guide camera
John attaches the "vibrolator"
A carefully engineered bolt taped to a motor. For shaking the frame slightly while Javier tunes the fine guidance system
Shinification begins!
For thermal reasons, almost all of bit needs to be covered in aluminized mylar. Plus that makes it shiny.
Michael adds insulating foam to the telescope baffle
Bryce shinfies the outer frame
Sutieng joins the foam/shinification team
She arrived from Durham (UK) with Richard
Cables on the optics box
Routed cables
Neatly organized, and won't flop around which can upset BIT's precision pointing control.
John does something.
I forget what. Probably important.
Michael finishes making the telescope baffle pretty
And thermally stable, but pretty is the important part.
Revisiting team foam/shiny
The riggers test fit CSBF's solar panel frames
Susan channels the power of 2.5 faces
Reaching inside to test some thermometers
Progress
Javier scacles BIT
Testing range of motion
Night time testing
Need to be able to see stars to test tracking. BIT has foreward and sideways cameras and points out both highbay doors.
Highbay at night
Too cloudy
Not enough stars for further testing. Time for sleep.
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