19 Jul Isaias Gutierrez, LASP, Week 5

Hello everyone, this was my fifth week at LASP, and it was an eventful one! Everyone in the lab returned on Monday from their conference in Copenhagen, which made a big difference from last week. We had a lot to do, and everyone jumped right in, which made this week super fun!

Throughout this week, Alex and I continued to attend many Astro Academy lectures, some about the different propulsion types, others about avionics, and even some about GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control). Alex and I continued to help Mike Kaiser out by soldering wires to connectors. The reason we have been doing this is to test future projects. If anything goes wrong, we can plug one side into the hardware and the other side into a power supply to see if the connector in the hardware has anything going wrong; if so, we can tell which pin is broken and fix it. Last week we soldered nine-pin connectors, and this week we finished them and started on 25-pin connectors. Our process started with cutting 25 19-inch wires and finding the right connectors. Afterward, we would start desoldering whatever remnants the connector still had from the prior wires. We used this fluid called flux, which allowed the solder to flow better so we could apply and remove it easier. Then, we soldered all the wires to one connector and put on shrink tubing to keep it in place. Once that was done, we started working on the other side of the connector and had to line up each of the wires with its respective number. This process was very tedious because you have to keep the wires untangled, and the soldering was hard because of the added weight on one side, which didn’t allow the wire to stay still. This process was a big learning curve, but we caught on pretty fast.

Besides the soldering and a big movement of the CubeSat Sprite, I helped out the undergrad Thomas with his stage that got sent off to be fixed. This week we saw that it wasn’t moving like it was supposed to, so we decided to open it up and found a lot of rust on the inside. Thomas and I tried cleaning it, but it was very difficult, so we did our best. It then became too loose and didn’t hold its position when told to, so we are going to let Mike take a look at it. I also helped out another undergrad, Anthony, with the cleaning and the insertion of a platform into his project, Waterloo.

One of the biggest things that we worked on this week was the movement of Sprite from the ARL building into the building LSTB for the TVAC (Thermal Vacuum) testing. TVAC is a vital step before launch because it tests how the spacecraft will handle the environment of space. During the test, Sprite is placed inside a vacuum chamber and cycled between hot and cold temperatures to simulate what it will experience while orbiting Earth and moving between sunlight and darkness. Throughout the test, we monitor the radios, batteries, and other electronics to ensure they continue working properly under those conditions. We started the process by moving Sprite from its cart into a box and wrapping the cart it was previously on so we could bring it from one building to another without getting dirty or damaging the pump attached. Once we were there, we plugged the pump back in and filled it with nitrogen to keep the moisture from entering and messing with any electronics. Alex and I sat and monitored the nitrogen levels to make sure it was okay while everyone else had a meeting about Sprite’s next steps. Finally, we moved Sprite into the TVAC chamber and started the process. We had to take a hiatus on Thursday, but we will continue the testing this upcoming week.

Besides working in the Lab, Alex and I have been out and about doing many amazing activities, some of which include biking to a river and swimming with tens of people, playing mini golf, playing pool, bowling, biking to pearl street for ice cream ( DO NOT LEAVE THE BIKE LOCK KEY ON THE LOCK WHILE YOU ARE BIKING; IT WILL FALL OFF, AND YOU WILL LOSE THE KEY. I LEARNT THAT THE HARD WAY), playing hockey, watching the world cup at work, visiting my brother and seeing my nephew!