Take a break from voting (no, haha, don’t take a break, PZ is 12 votes ahead!) to read about some cool news I got today:
For my day job, I create educational activities based on some NASA space missions. One of them is GLAST, an observatory that will detect extremely energetic gamma rays from astronomical sources like exploding stars and black holes gobbling down matter. GLAST is under construction, and will launch in October 2007.
Today, it was announced that GLAST’s main instrument, the Large Area Telescope, was attached (what the engineers call "integrated" if you want to impress people at the rave) to the spacecraft. Here it is, mounted on top with its protective foil and plastic wrapper:
(More pictures are here.)
Cool! For a sense of scale, there is a guy in one of those protective bunny suits on the right in the background, behind some equipment. The spacecraft+LAT is about 3 meters tall.
This is one more step accomplished, and it’s a big one. They still have to finish up the GLAST Burst Monitors and lots of other assorted things, but we’re on schedule to tracking down exotic cosmic beasties next year!
December 15th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
There’s a quotation mark in the voting page link preventing the page loading..
December 15th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
What is that, yellow duct tape?
December 15th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
Oops! Fixed.
As for the tape, it’s a nonconductive material, and crinkly like cellophane. It’s also probably $100 per linear foot.
December 15th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
I don’t wanna get too technical here, but there are a sh*tload of doohickeys on that kajigger there.
December 16th, 2006 at 4:31 am
$100 per foot?
So thats why satellites are so expensive.
Its the duct tape.
December 16th, 2006 at 10:43 am
Ah, yes, duct tape, with a light side and a dark side, like the Force, it holds the universe together or, as with musicians instruments, it keeps the guitar from falling apart,,,
Here’s hoping the GLAST finds some interesting,,,anomolies. AH, the chance to learn something new,,,,
GAry 7
December 16th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
What’s with the giant ice cube on top?
And are all of those legs like pogo sticks? It looks like it could hop around the room, dispensing ice and mixed drinks while detecting gamma rays.
December 19th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Dear Phil, Congrats on the GLAST integration. The Dawn mission achieved full functional integration last September. Everyone is in a kind of frenzy testing testing testing. All looks good so far on the way to a June 20 launch. BTW, I try to keep current the Dawn mission Wikipedia pages (when I remember and have time). Consider the same media (Wikipedia) for GLAST, Phil, if you haven’t thought of it before.
December 20th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Man, that looks just like a giant version of the BAT on the SWIFT spacecraft… I did a gig at goddard a while ago and worked on that bird. So is glast like swift++?