We often refer to the term Flight Operations to mean the monitoring and controlling of COSI in flight. Operations is a very crucial part of a successful flight, as it’s how we ensure COSI is working to the best of its ability throughout the flight. Thanks to our various communications links, as outlined in Talking to COSI, we can monitor and control many aspects of COSI in real-time during the flight.
Category: In the lab (Page 1 of 2)
A lot of people ask us if/how we talk to COSI in flight. We actually have 4 different ways of communicating with our instrument, each with different ways of sending/receiving data and, most noticeably, different speeds. Here’s a summary of the different communications links. Continue reading
COSI had it’s compatibility test with CSBF last Wednesday. We had to wait for the excitement surrounding Warbirds to settle down and we needed a full day of good weather. The science team arrived at 5am to go through all of our checks to be ready for the gondola pick up by the launch vehicle at 8am. After hours of testing outside and only a few minor glitches we were happy to declare success by that evening. Continue reading
The New Zealand Air Force parked on the apron directly outside the doors of our hangar.
The tiny Wanaka Airport has been buzzing recently. Over the Easter long weekend they hosted the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow, which, from the view of our hangar right on the airport apron, was awesome. There were so many amazing planes and skillful pilots, and for many of us, it was our first airshow. We had the hangar doors open to the sunshine and excitement all weekend long and even though we were working most of the time, it was a lot of fun. Continue reading
I meant to update this a few days ago, but haven’t had a chance yet. It’s been an exciting week: we got the cryostat on the gondola and we have an almost fully built instrument! Continue reading
We keep getting delayed due to shipping, which is pretty frustrating. First, we had to wait to get the card cages sent from Berkeley. As soon as we got those last week, we thought there was nothing preventing us from getting the cryostat on the gondola. But that was before we noticed that our stycast (thermal epoxy) had dried out. We need the stycast to attach heaters and temperature sensors to the cryostat, the electronics boxes, and the gondola. Continue reading
Alan, Alex, Brent, McBride and I arrived in Wanaka yesterday afternoon. This was basically the first thing we saw:
Sorry to leave you all hanging for so long. It’s been a busy past year for COSI! And it’s about time that we caught you up on what we’ve been working on. Continue reading
The last launch attempt was tough. We got so close. Closer than most of us on COSI have ever been to launching a payload that we have worked on. In fact, we got past a point that CSBF said there was no going back from, but then the situation turned a bit dire and we had to back off. Continue reading
ANITA had their 6th roll out this morning and after a few snags they made it out to the flight line and had a gorgeous launch! For many of us, on COSI and ANITA, this was the first balloon launch we’ve witnessed live. It was remarkable. Continue reading