After a brief break back home, I head back to New Zealand to join the SuperBIT team preparing for a launch from Wanaka. Much of the hardware team had arrived a couple weeks before I did, and had set up the lab, cleaned the telescope, and started to put things together. During my first week we put everything together in a form that’s ready for full-system ground testing, if not quite ready for the rigours of the stratosphere.
Wanaka is also beautiful. A person could get used to launching balloons from here.
Our hangar
At Wanaka Airport
Faerie meeting place
In Queenstown
Steven attaches the boresight guide camera
Rebecca and Ajay mount the batteries
Mounted batteries
Reattaching the MCC
"Master Control Computer"
Emaad approves
Nap time
On the mechanic's creeper
CSBF's solar arrays under construction
Partially assembled "solar skirt"
Which is gigantic
Cutting foam
There is a lot of foam to cut. Day/night flight like superbit need lots of insulation.
Vy made a telescope cover
BIT's boats
Outer frame on the left. Inner and middle frames on right.
Mt Iron track
Nice hill trail in town for an after-work hike
Storage drive insulation
Fully assembled solar skirt
Inner frame cables routed neatly
By me and Vy
Primary mirror rotation mechanism
Inner frame from the front
Starboard side of the telescope
With gyroscope and guide camera. And green heaters everywhere.
Port side of telescope
With more gyros and the roll guide camera
Tip/tilt mirror controller
Closer look at just the top of the inner frame
Where most of the electronics boxes live
Taped over LEDs on star camera computer
We darken everything to not have little flashes contaminate our images
Airside
Out the big hangar door on the runway side
More creeper napping
It's quite comfortable
Barth's Safety Style
Testing the SIP outside
"Support instrumentation package", the communication electronics
The telescope's belly
When it's pointed up high
Telescope up high
From the other side
The elevation drive
Foaming up the telescope
Vy makes the outer frame shiny
Creating a reflective "oven" to keep the batteries warm
Spencer helps with telescope foaming
We put our recently arrive theorist to work on hardware.
Susan and Barth inspect the shininess
Pointing at shininess
Moving the telescope over to the hoist
And moving the outer frame
Dropping inner and middle frames into outer frame
Preparing "the hat"
The final major part of BIT to be assembled
Sunset at the lake
Taking a pleasant rest after work
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