Deployment & Vibration Testing

Although I got a vacation on Sunday, Friday and Saturday were very very long days (14.5 and 12.5 hours respectively). However, we got a lot done (by NASA standards at least) - we went through all of the vibration testing and some of the deployment testing. For the vibe tests, they mount the rocket on a vibration table:

Wayne in the padded room

Then they vibrate it at various frequencies in different directions. They do the x, y and z (or thrust) axis and the do random patterns too, to try and determine inherent resonant frequencies of the payload. I watched one test... it got pretty loud when the vibration went up to 2,000 Hz (that's 2,000 vibration cycles a second!) and luckily nothing went too wrong with our instruments. Although we did find out later that perhaps one of our integral screws worked its way out during the tests. Uh oh. It's easy to fix though. Most of the time, I can't really watch the tests. I'm stuck in another room watching various screen and strip charts for our instrument read-outs. Here's an example of what I stare at part of the day.

Looks like the future!

Between vibration tests we did a few deploy tests. This is to check that every piece that ejects off the payload will do so nicely without effecting our instruments too much. Saturday we did a nose cone deploy test, where they hang the payload upside down in a padded room (first picture) and then "fire" the nose cone eject V-bands. They pop off at an amazing speed and the nose cone falls into the pile of cardboard boxes below -- really high tech stuff. I took a video from the upper mezzanine, looking through a plexiglass shield down into the padded room. Check it out, it's kind of fun.



Here's the nose cone after they've ejected it from the payload. The remainder of the tests will be done without the cap on.

Poor little nose cone

Overall the tests have gone well and the news is good, all except for that errant screw. Today was a semi-long day... we're still here at 9pm and not going home any time soon. But we weren't allowed to come in until noon since it was a safety hazard while they were doing pyro stuff. Tomorrow is mag cal testing and the final post-vibe sequence test. I may get to go home eventually! Tonight I will leave you with a most excellent packaging label. I want a whole roll of these stickers.

Critical! We're serious!

Integrating!

Integration is moving along. Slowly, but moving. According to some, this is them going top speed, so I can't complain. But there is definitely a lot of "hurry up and wait" syndrome going around. Been getting here by 7:30-8 am and leaving around 8 pm. Not too bad since a couple people have done 6am-10pm days last week!

Payload without the nose cone (you can see it sitting in the background)

Frozen condensation outside the liquid nitrogen hose

Yesterday we made it through pre-vibe sequence tests. That means we did a few mock launch sequences (before vibration tests) where we mimic the countdown, turn all systems on in sequence, turn on high-voltages in sequence and even blow a little ACS gas (attitude control system). One test, the all-fire test, was just like the launch will go: everything turning on at the right times. The other two tests were the no-fire tests or the power backups tests, where they didn't turn all systems on. This was to check for redundancies in the power systems.

Mock launch sequence

The actual 800 some seconds when we are doing the sequence is pretty exciting. I have to run back and forth between a couple of screens and strip charts to check on the health of my instruments throughout the sequence. And there are a few events that I have to keep an eye on, such as when we turn on the despin motor for our imager or when we turn on the high voltage to a few of our other instruments. There are several other experiment teams running back and forth watching at the same time, so it gets a bit hectic. In the picture above, Jim Diehl (our Telemetry Engineer) is calling the events and watching the overall progress of the count. He's the one in the foreground with the phone. Everything went pretty swimmingly so we are moving on today to the vibration testing. And then comes the post-vibe sequencing. Fun stuff!

This is Phil's "I'm a real scientist!" pose

In the end, if you haven't understood anything at all that I've said, just go watch Apollo 13 again. It's the same thing. I swear. :)

Time to Restart the Blog!!

It's that time again! My rocket adventures continue. This time I will be traveling to snowy Norway with the hopes of successfully launching a sounding rocket into the polar cusp region of the Earth's magnetosphere.




Right now, I'm at Wallops Flight Facility busily trying to integrate the rocket payload and getting it ready to ship to Norway. To the left, you can see the the rocket on the spin table, where just last night they spun it up to 3 Hz (which is 180 rpm - pretty fast!) to test whether or not it was balanced properly (it was not). I'll be hanging out here off and on for the next two weeks or (gasp!) maybe more while the process of integration shuffles slowly toward an acceptable conclusion.














The next step is to travel to Norway. I'll be leaving from Boston on Saturday, November 13th and arriving many flights later in Andenes, Norway. After 2 weeks in Andenes, at the Andoya Rocket Range, helping to get things up and running there, I will scoot off to the far, far North: Longyearbyen, a cozy little arctic town on the island of Svalbard, Norway. There I will remain until the rocket launches! To the right, you can see a little map I made showing my two locations. Longyearbyen is at 78°N (just 12° south of the geographic north pole!) and so it will be dark for 24 hours a day during my stay. This is a vast difference from my last northern expedition to the North Slope of Alaska. The sleepy village of Kaktovik where I stayed 2 years ago is only at 70°N latitude, and during that particular time window (late February) we had several hours of dawn/dusk sunlight per day. This trip I will see none while in Longyearbyen. My boss describes it as pretty surreal to see schoolchildren running home from school with backpacks on under the nighttime sky, with only street lights to illuminate the way.

Well, there will be more updates to come. Stay tuned. I'm ready for another arctic adventure!

The End

I'm home for real! The whole end of my trip seemed very surreal, but I guess that's what happens with a head cold and sleep deprivation, mixed with a little international travel. It took me four days, yes, FOUR DAYS, to get home from Antarctica. I left on Monday (NH time) and didn't get home until 3pm on Thursday. But before I left, I had a chance to say goodbye to some people and have just a little more fun. On Monday, the night before my flight, I hung out with my airforce buddies one last time and even got to go to my last mid-rats!! I had obtained a mid-rats card from someone who left a week earlier. If you have one of those special cards, you get to go to midnight rations at midnight instead of waiting until 12:30 like all the day-timers. I think the idea is to let the real night-shift people get food before all the drunken moochers come in looking for a midnight snack. But nobody ever even asked for my mid-rats card! It was apparently a rule not often enforced. Mid rats!! Proudly eating a falafel sandwich with my mid rats card in the background... The sign sounds threatening! But they're just bluffing. The next morning I woke up early to get a tour of the USNS Paul Buck, the fuel tanker that was in port at McMurdo at the time. My army guys had a private tour set up and they invited me along. It was an awesome ship! It wouldn't even really be that bad to live on it for six months at a time. The rooms were more spacious than at McMurdo! And the food even looked better. Bridge of the ship, looking out over the deck. Mostly all of that equipment is for the fuel: pumps and plumbing to deliver the cargo ashore. Different color codings painted on the pipes mean different fuel. They carry gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, whatever. The tour guide had some impressive numbers about pumping capacity and pressure but I can't remember them. I do remember that it's double-hulled, which was a fuel tanker requirement after the Exxon Valdez debacle. Big ships need big engines. The room it was housed in was at least two stories tall! The Oden (Swedish icebreaker) was docked right up against the Paul Buck for refueling purposes. And yes, the tour guide's fly was open... I don't know why! Despite my fear of oceans, I think I could take a ride on that one for a while. It seemed big enough to not sink or flip over. The guide did say that it was smooth sailing, but he hadn't been aboard for a hurricane yet. He told us how the whales and dolphins will come swim right next to the ship which sounds like an outstanding experience. After the tour, I headed up to the mail room with all my luggage to catch the ride to my plane. We all took a caravan out to the airfield at 11:45am and waited for the plane to arrive. It was a little sad to be leaving... there are some good people I met that I will miss a lot, especially since I'll probably never see them again. I had less than a day in Christchurch but I at least got to sleep in a real hotel bed one night. The next morning I checked out and headed to the airport to catch the first of many planes bringing me back home. I went from Antarctica to Christchurch, NZ to Sydney, AU to Honolulu, Hawaii to San Francisco, CA to Detroit, MI to Manchester, NH. A few of those flights were very empty so I got to lay down across a row and get some real sleep. But not much at one time. Overall, I went two full nights without a bed. I felt like a total zombie when I got home. But the upside is that I met a nice USAP guy and we decided to go to Waikiki, a beach in Honolulu, for just one hour during our layover. It was spectacular! I wish I had more time there, but it was worth it even for the short visit. I felt sand between my toes, walked in the ocean and drank a Mai Tai while gazing at the beach. A real beach! So refreshing after all that ice... Sarah picked me up from the airport once I got back and took me to eat some real, non-airport, non-expired food! Thank you Sarah!! So the ARRO is on it's way home, it will reach UNH in about 8 weeks or something. Edith grunted with excitement for about 20 minutes when I got to the house. And I'm adjusting (slowly) back to the real world and my own time zone. So all is good, mission accomplished. Back to solid ground and seeing stars at night. Tune in for my next science blog session when I head to Norway this November for a rocket launch! {Actual posting date: Saturday, January 30th, 10 pm EST}

Life at McMurdo

Since the science is over, and me hanging out with random people isn't that exciting for a science blog, I've decided to do a post about what life is like at McMurdo.

There are people here that come and go, but there is a big group who stay the entire season, with maybe a little R&R trip in the middle. Therefore, there is quite the sense of community between most of these folks. They are stuck here, sometimes with their significant others, sometimes without, spending holidays & birthdays together, sharing the bad times as well. I was talking to a friend here who has an extensive interest in personality types and she says that the most popular personality down here, Myers-Briggs-wise, is the INTJ. Which is, of course, what I am. No wonder only 1% of the the rest of the world is INTJ... they're all down here on the ice! But you can easily see why that type of person is drawn to this place. There are a lot of travelers, wanderers, science & tech people, dreamers. Not that I could ever come down here permanently or semi-permanently as many have chosen to do. There's no grass! No gardens (with the exception of the little greenhouse on the hill), no dogs & cats, very little fresh food, no trees. And most importantly, no time alone! Usually everyone has a roommate, at least in the summer season. There's also no real seasons and most of the year there's no day & night. Just constant sunlight or constant dark. A lot of the things I love in life are not here. But somehow these people make it work, and in some ways I admire that. 

 The town is one of the most functional, efficient systems I've ever seen in action. It is that way, of course, because of the relatively few amount of people it needs to service. Even a small university is much larger in scope. There is also a bit of a divide. Raytheon, a government defense contractor, provides much of the support for the town and its scientists. Yet a bunch of the employees are not huge fans of Raytheon and are, in fact, oftentimes on the fringes of American politics and society. With such a critical opinion of the military contractor that they work for, there are understandably some conflicts that arise. I've seen subversive stickers on the walls and heard conversations that Raytheon officials would not like to overhear. But there is also a more present divide between the actual military stationed at the base and the support and the scientists. Not many of the civilians or beakers (slang for scientist) here actually socialize with the army guys and gals. I was one of the few, gladly getting the compliment of the "one cool beaker." But really, everyone is here for the same purpose: to do their job, do it well and have some fun in the meantime. 

 Some of the fun of being here is the sense of isolation. The only way on or off the continent is by ship or by air. And each avenue is essentially close off during the entirety of the winter season. Currently, there is a fuel vessel in port, pumping thousands of gallons of fuel into McMurdo - enough to last the long, dark winter.

  The USNS Paul Buck - I love the huge "NO SMOKING" sign on the ship full of gasoline

There is a flurry of activity here every day. McMurdo doesn't sleep and it never stops. Planes and helos are arriving and departing constantly, every day that the weather cooperates during the busiest time. Passengers arriving from field sites, the South Pole, Christchurch. There are a million jobs to get done each and every day. As hard as everyone works, they find the time to throw some pretty awesome parties. 

The scenery is the best part honestly. Although you have to get away from town to see it in its pure state.

  View from the NSF Chalet

This place is beautiful, but you are constantly surrounded by the chugging of trucks and machinery, the beeps of backing up vehicles and the general chaos of a perpetual construction site. It's noisy and dirty and dusty. And yet, off in the distance you can see the undamaged terrain that McMurdo used to be. Yes, this place must exist if we are to explore and understand the far reaches of this continent, but it is still a little sad.

  Dirty McMurdo
I have really enjoyed my time here, but am so glad to be going home. My house, my friends, my life - they are all calling me back home. But I've made some friends here and met a LOT of people and had some truly good times. Going to the bag drag in just a few hours and then the flight out is tomorrow. I'm coming back to New Hampshire!!! 

{Actual posting date: Monday, January 25th, afternoon}

Hiking Ob Hill, Antarctica

Hooray! The ARRO is packed and ready to be shipped. It was slow going, but we finally got it done and I'm officially done with work here. Yesterday was some of my army buddies' last night here, they left on a plane North today. So we spent the evening celebrating. First, we hiked Observation Hill - what a great view from up there! Observe the many cool pictures...

View from the bottom

Demolition zone, complete with warning dummy!

View from halfway up

I'm king of the world!

Me and the boys on the peak of Ob Hill

Scott's cross, memorial to Robert F. Scott, Antarctic explorer & ultimate victim of the harsh Antarctic conditions

Scott's cross with a great view of Mt. Erebus in the background

And now, for a short digression into the geology and history of Mt. Erebus:

Erebus was named after a ship by the same moniker, captained by an early explorer, Sir James Clark Ross. Erebus was a son of the Greek god of Chaos. Perfectly appropriate for this volatile mountain. Mt. Erebus is the ideal test subject for volcanologists. It is one of only a few such volcanos in the world where you can witness & study the lava lake directly from the inner crater. It's lake is always active, constantly convecting and well viewed from a relatively safe position. Although one must watch out for the occasional lava bomb, a blob of magma thrown high into the air during a violent convection. Mt. Erebus was first summited by members of the Shackleton expedition in 1908. It is a favorite among scientists because it is so easy to access compared to other similar volcanos. A mere 35 km from the cushy McMurdo station, the mountain is easily reached by helos and has a permanent base camp on its slope.

After the climb up Ob Hill, we hit the Southern Exposure for a few games of shuffleboard, and later in the night I had a chance to go to my first mid rats! (Check the glossary on that one...) Well, it was a good send off at least. Farewell friends!


{Actual posting date: Saturday, January 23rd, dinnertime}

David Attenborough!

Last night I went to burger bar, a famous past time here in McMurdo. Every Sunday and Wednesday, one of the bars here has a burger night where they will sell you a burger (or veggie burger!) with every topping you could want plus a side of fries for only $2! It was way better than the normal Galley food. I hung out with some people and got inducted into something called Team Extreme, which might be a good or bad thing - remains to be seen! The sickness still lingers, but it is transforming into something slightly better. I need to stay hydrated! Here is a helpful reminder that can be seen on the back of all the toilet stall doors. Today (Thursday) was a great day, since I can finally see the end of the project. We will be done packing everything up by tomorrow sometime and the next flight North will be Tuesday, so I'll be on that one. Should be back to NH by Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Today I disassembled some clamps, drove a truck around doing errands to get rid of our leftover materials and had the commander of the group of the New Zealand armed forces here offer "some men" to help if I needed any heavy lifting done. Sadly, one of our coils got destroyed while being dug up. But everything else seems to have survived intact so I think we're doing good. Tonight was the famous talk by Sir David Attenborough. He spoke of the Birds of Paradise and their mating habits and of Darwin's contemporary, Alfred Wallace, who had many of the same ideas and studied these birds for years. He also took some questions at the end, one of which was "Where do you want to go that you haven't been yet?" His answer was the Gobi Desert... So I've been one place David Attenborough hasn't. Cool! He was quite an animated speaker for being 83 years old. He also had a great story about being manhandled by a huge female gorilla in Rwanda. After the lecture, I went to hang out with some cool people. And I think I got a ticket on a trip to see Pegasus this Sunday! The Pegasus is not just the name of the runway here, it is also the name of the crashed plane buried in the ice nearby. So we may go out and check that out this weekend. Tomorrow I have a hike planned for Observation Hill after work. One more thing to say before passing out for the night: Happy Birthday, Sarah!! (even though she's already asleep and won't see this until tomorrow) {Actual posting date: Thursday, January 21st, bedtime}