Yesterday the second BARREL payload launched. BARREL really has several small payloads, but they’re down here to test fly just two. This is to check the thermal environment flying over the antarctic ice, which reflects a lot of light. Luckily for them, the first payload went straight north, over ocean (which reflects a lot less) and is now halfway to Australia.
Hand launches are cool and I didn’t do the last one justice. So, I set out with a mission of collecting more good pictures this time. I think I succeeded.
In BLAST news, we reorganized the first level of the highbay in the afternoon. Instead of our setup for gondola development, we’ve switched to a communal circle of computers to maximize communication when we launch.
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- Extra steps on The Boss. Well implemented
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- Scott, one of the TM guys
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- Preinflation
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- Natalie comes out to watch too
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- Inflation begins. The universe is dominated by a scalar field (Don’t worry if this makes no sense, it’s an unfunny cosmology joke that I can no longer resist)
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- To begin, the balloon is held down by hand
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- Eventually it’s let go, but still held by the final release mechanism
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- More inflation, starting to get full. Little balloons are great because this takes only a few mintues
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- BARREL the Second, closer than I ever got to the first one. This time, I made sure I was as close as I was allowed to be
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- Safety watchers, and helium trucks
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- Other watchers: Gabe and (CSBF) Matt
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- Inflation ending
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- Inflation done, payload-side launch crew departs. Here begins the sequence of posting pretty much every picture I managed to take
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- The payload-side crew walks over
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- Payload-side crew arrives at payload
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- Ready. Curtis and Cory handle the payload, Vic gets the ‘chute-balloon attachment point
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- The balloon is released!
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- Characteristic balloon mushrooming
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- Ready to move
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- Starting to move
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- “Oh shit, now we really need to move”
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- Really moving
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- Run and throw/heave
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- Released
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- Ascending
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- Still ascending. This continues for a while
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- Nick, Mark, and Matt look up
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- Tristan, as close as I could focus him. I like doing this sometimes, and he’s one of the few that doesn’t complain
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- Under the mezzanine, before rearrangement
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- Elio cleans the downstairs solder station (aka horrible mess central). He’s understandably unhappy about it
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- Matt sweeps
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- Partially complete. Workspace replaced with desks
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- During a late night of testing, Barth and Elio demo what their shift during flight might look like: sitting in opposite corners, and not talking
Steve! You are worth your weight in gold. Love your pictures and explanations. Wish I could make a vat of fudge for you in appreciation for this great pictorial of your work on the Ice. I wonder if you have any idea how many people are watching you daily – Many, I’m sure.
Renee, I don’t see why you can’t make a vat of fudge in appreciation of the blog. I’ll be a little sad that I won’t be able to have any of it. But, more vats of fudge make the world a better place.
Steve – GREAT pictures and commentary ….. can you please tell me the date/time of the BARREL II launch? (Also for CREAM and BLAST if you know them too.) Thanks.
Tom, CSBF publishes a lot of flight information on their website. For this season: http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/antarctica/ice1011.htm
Thanks Steve but I’ve never figured out why they don’t have the start/launch times on their site. Have to go to the maps to get final landing time and time aloft goes away when the mission ends so you can’t find the total time aloft easily. You’d think they would want to promote ballooning and not hide all the basic info of the flights! Anyway, sorry to be rambling – can you provide the launch time?
Tom, without official information the best I can do is the timestamps in the images (possibly inaccurate, NZDT)
BARREL II: 2010-12-18 09:59:33
CREAM: 2010-12-21 14:41:44
BLAST official launch time is 2010-12-27 04:04:00 UTC