Eat, Sleep, Repeat

Not much new to talk about today. Eat, sleep, repeat... with some work thrown in for good measure. We're well into the final details needed to check out all the systems to declare "flight ready" by the end of the week.

The weather is still mostly cloudy, in the 40's, with a cold northwest wind. There may be some snow on Thursday. No flight attempts will be possible until Friday.

Jukkasjärvi (Meeting place)

Although today was a US holiday, it was all work at Esrange. The weather is clearing but windy, with a likely balloon launch opportunity for AESOP on Friday. The ULDB test flight would follow soon after. The next step in flight preparations was to being installing electronics and valves on the large "apex plate". This 4ft round 3/4 inch thick aluminum plate is integral to the top of the new "superpressure" balloon structure being tested. It's heavy enough to require a temporary "tow balloon" to lift it before the main balloon is inflated. One purpose of the electronics is to receive commands to cut the tow balloon away before flight. The bulk of the electronics controls the helium valves and sends back vital information, such as the difference in pressure inside/outside the balloon and the tension forces on a few of the 200+ hightech fiber "tendons".
Here are two picture of Stratodude attaching the squib-firing box and the valve subassemblies (which are also used to fill the 260ft diameter balloon). Extra care is taken to prevent objects from falling into the balloon material (tools, fasteners, jewelery, small children, etc). Speaking of that, there was a tour group of Swedish kids today at Esrange. Rockets and balloons in the Arctic are "mycket coolt"!

After work, I drove the rental Toy(ota) truck to the nearest town to buy some milk (mjölk). It's about a 15 minute drive from Esrange to Jukkasjärvi, population 541, on the Torne River. The town has a church built around 1600 and is the site of a Saami village that predates the Swedish settlement. Here are a few pictures of the town. It is famous around the world for its Ice Hotel which is rebuilt every year (the melted remains are still there!).

Rocks and Rockets

Another cloudy day with rain on & off, but a little warmer (high of 50). So, I decided to take a walk down to the rocket launch area, then along the river to look for some interesting rocks. The sandy soil holds a variety of rocks left by glaciers long ago, much like where I'm from in upstate NY.

First, I wandered around the rocket launch complex and took a bunch of pictures (with captions at the bottom). The Kiruna launch site was opened in 1966 and over 450 rockets have been launched here. The Maxus rocket is the largest launched at Esrange, and was developed for microgravity experiments. The motor is a Castor 4B, made by Thiokol in the US (1m in diameter, 9m long, all steel, 100K lbs. thrust, and >25 million N-secs, for you rocket geeks!). The Skylarks and Orions were launched here regularly. Also, the small 4" Super Loki Dart rocket is common at Esrange. (Can anyone identify this old rocket?)

Here's a view of the large enclosed launch tower. The most recent launch damaged the back of the building when the blast doors weren't fully open (so they say!). There's another assembly building with mobile launchers for the medium rocket. One of the small launchers for the Super Loki was made in 1942.

I continued on further into the woods and along the fenceline near the river and picked up about 30 small rocks of different varieties. As you can see in this picture, there are still patches of snow. And the high latitude (almost 68 degrees North) gives long shadows even in the early afternoon near the end of May.

Now, let's see if the weather clears up so we can get something off the ground.

Rocket Graveyard

Saturday, May 27, 2006

I'm finally caught up on making entries here. The flight attempts for early this morning and this evening were both scrubbed due to 100% overcast and occassional light rain. I got up at 3:30am, heard about the cancellation, and went back to sleep until 10am.

About a mile from my room at Esrange is the rocket graveyard. This is where recovered stages from sounding rocket firings are piled up over the years. Take a look at the photos I took today. There are Skylarks, Orions, Black Brants, Loki's, and others, all rusting away, many with nozzles, some with fins. Lots of interesting hardware! I didn't have time (started to rain) to identify many of them or take some better photos. Here's a list of what's been launched at Esrange over the years. I also roamed around the two launch towers. I'll be back!

More Rain and Reindeer

Friday, May 26, 2006

There's a slight chance that the weather will cooperate for AESOP. So, they're planning for a 6am (local time) launch. Which means most people went back for a nap in order to show up around 2am for flight preparations. I've been assigned to video tape the balloon handling and deployment, as a routine NASA record. That means I need to be around at 4am. Two video cameras and 4 batteries are ready. But, the skies and forecast don't look like they'll cooperate.

For dinner we had chopped-up reindeer meat in a mushroom sauce over bow-tie pasta with small red berries. I actually ate some and it wasn't too bad... a little stringy. Of course, all the predictable jokes were thrown around. "Is it Dasher or Dancer?" "Are those red things pieces of Rudolph's nose?" And my contribution: "You know what's for supper when there's one less pulling the sleigh!".

Ballonguppslappningsplan

Thursday, May 25, 2006

It's still quite cold, in the upper 30's, and overcast. We had some light snow in the air early in the morning. The daily weather briefings haven't been very promising, but there's a chance that things will clear up enough to launch the first balloon payload (AESOP) tomorrow. Here's a view looking across the balloon launch area toward the two sounding rocket launchers.

The ULDB balloon crate was opened today and the aft and apex plates were brought out for work to begin soon. I finished tested the autovalve function on the new CAP prototype and helped with video transmitter checkout for CosmoCam. During the flight, CosmoCam will show live video over the Internet from the payload within line-of-sight radio range (200 miles). For, now it is looking around the integration area from the payload, spying on all of us! Check out the link and you may see me wandering around. There's also a webcam from the top of the building looking out over the balloon launch field (or "Ballonguppslappningsplan" in Swedish).

More Testing

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

I'm almost getting into a routine now, sleeping at the normal time. It's a short walk from the room to the integration building after eating breakfast (cereal) in my room. There's a full kitchen on my floor, but I've only used the regrigerator (for milk). Lunch is at noon and dinner is at 6pm. So far, the meals in the base cafeteria have been very good.

Here's a view from my temporary office, looking at the ULDB payload. Today, I checked out the prototype CAP and got the ground-support laptop ready to go. During the flight, I can send commands and view the results both through the main radio links or through NASA's TDRSS satellite, or through the Iridium satellite system as a backup.

Instead of eating at the base cafeteria, 7 of us drove into Kiruna (30-40 minute drive). We ended up at O'Leary's, an Irish-American pub/restaurant where I ordered Chinese food and paid in Swedish kronor. Sometime life is strange! Cost: $29US.

Payload Integration

Tuesday May 23, 2006

There are two payload integration buildings at Esrange. I'm in the one on the right where our ULDB (Ultra Long Duration Balloon) and test payload are being prepared for flight. As planned, I arrived after initial unpacking and check-out was completed by the CSBF payload engineer. The main purpose of this flight is to test the new 'superpressure' balloon technology developed by NASA and manufactured by Aerostar (take a look at Aerostar engineer Mike Smith's blog). NASA/CSBF (where I work) is responsible for the flight systems, ground support electronics, and flight operations.
Here's what the balloon will look like at 120,000 feet. It holds 6 million cubic feet of helium at a slightly higher pressure than the thin outside air. It is 260 feet across, a scaled-down version of the future 450ft operational balloon. When suspended at launch the flight train will be about 1000ft high! The test payload, weighing about 3000 pounds, supports onboard power, test instrumentation, video cameras, telemetry radios (line-of-sight and TDRSS satellite), valve controls, and the flight termination system. Take a look at my photos (prep, roll-out, and launch) from the previous ULDB test flight in Ft. Sumner, NM in 2005.
So, what am I doing in Sweden?
One system that I designed will measure and send back the tension forces on a few of the 200+ "tendons" in the balloon structure. Another system I helped design is a new electronics box (Commandable Apex Package) that will autonomously control the helium valves to maintain altitude. It is being tested passively on this flight while the old system is being used for manual control. Lastly, I'm testing out a ground-based tracking telecope to view the balloon as it ascends and takes shape over 2 to 3 hours.

Getting settled in

Monday May 22, 2006

It's difficult getting used to the never-ending daylight here. This morning at 3am I woke up when a ray of sunlight came through the shades!
Here's a photo of the back wing of "Hotel Dilbert" where I'm staying in Esrange. My room is toward the left end on the second floor. (Go here for room photos.)

The main Esrange building is across from the hotel, further away in this photo. The cafeteria and meeting rooms are in the main building. Most of the activity here during the year is for research rocket flights, but I got here too late to see the last one of the season. There are two rocket launch towers a couple miles from the balloon launch area. The long-duration scientific balloon launches begin during the 'summer' when there is continuous daylight for the solar power systems and the winds at 100K+ feet head west towards Canada. Payloads (telescopes and space physics experiments) are recovered in Northern Canada after several days.

Arrival in Sweden

Sunday May 21, 2006

I left for the airport at 5am mountain time and arrived in Kiruna, Sweden at 2pm local time the next day. 25 hrs of travel time, stopping in DFW, Chicago, and Stockholm. Here's a photo of the Scandanavian Airlines A340 I flew on. I got an upgrade to business class, compete with 4-course dinner, large sleeper seats, and breakfast. During the 4-hr layover in Stockholm, I walked around like a zombie but found a place to catch a few winks. I don't remember much about the short flight to Kiruna! I was asleep when we crossed the Arctic Circle. After a 40 minute drive from the airport in Kiruna, I checked into my room at the "Dilbert Hotel" at the Esrange launch facility. The first thing I did was take a 3-hr nap! After dinner in the base cafeteria, I tried to stay awake long enough to go to sleep at a "normal" time. It's difficult to adjust when the sun never sets here!