05 Jul Alex Birck, LASP, Week 5

Hello everyone!

Week 5 at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) was a little shorter than usual since everyone had Friday off for the Fourth of July, but there was still plenty to work on before the long weekend.

PAM Burn Mechanism

One of the main focuses this week was the practice PAM, which is a training device used to practice tying the burn-wire knot before working on the actual SPRITE flight system. Burn-wires are used in spacecraft solar panel deployment systems to hold the panels folded during launch and then release them once in space so they can deploy and generate power. If this mechanism fails, the solar panels may not deploy correctly, which would leave the spacecraft without power and severely limit the mission. Early in the week, we found that the practice PAM was not passing the electrical signal properly to the burn mechanism, meaning it couldn’t successfully burn the wire and couldn’t be used for training. We worked on troubleshooting it and ended up rebuilding the burn mechanism to try to get it working again. By the end of the week, the practice PAM was fully rebuilt, and next week it will be tested to make sure everything is functioning correctly.

Spectrometer

We also spent some time trying to work with the spectrometer setup used for asteroid sample analysis. However, progress was limited this week because the undergraduate who normally runs the system was not there. Without that support, we weren’t able to fully get the instrument running, so that work was put on hold until next week, when the system can be properly set up again.

This week, we went to a lecture focused on the Moon and why water is such an important resource for Artemis missions. The discussion highlighted how lunar water can support life support systems and potentially be used for fuel in future exploration. After the lecture, I also had the opportunity to use a thermal imaging camera, which showed how temperature differences appear clearly across different materials and surfaces in real time. That was fun.

Thermal Camera

Friday was off for the Fourth of July, which made the week feel a bit shorter and gave a nice break in the middle of everything.

Outside of work, I went to Lucky’s Bakehouse and walked around Boulder, which was a nice break from the usual schedule. Earlier in the week, Isaias and I also went to see The Backrooms, which was a good change of pace and a nice way to unwind.