PI Daily, April 2021
By Lindy Elkins-Tanton Starting January 1, 2020…
a new series of daily mission activity Tweets from Psyche Principal Investigator (PI) Lindy Elkins-Tanton.
#PI_Daily
The goal? To share an inside look at the chores, challenges, tasks, assignments, duties, and more taken on by a NASA mission PI!
Follow along on @MissionToPsyche or below.
How many days in Psyche's year? Just for fun
Orbit is 1,823.115 Earth days
Psyche rotates (a Psyche day) in 4.1959 hrs
So 10,427.86 Psyche days in a Psyche yearBc spin axis lies in orbital plane, each pole in sunlight for thousands of days in a row.#PI_Daily @MissionToPsyche pic.twitter.com/gXkTaUB7Du
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 30, 2021
A meditation on the Assembly, Test, and Launch Ops part of a mission.
We're in the middle of adrenaline-boosting ATLO with @MissionToPsyche. We're doing well, but every day brings new challenges, and so I've been thinking…#PI_Daily /n pic.twitter.com/wsXASYxlFJ
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 28, 2021
Part of the great @MissionToPsyche ATLO team, and me on the right, on the floor in the high bay at @NASAJPL with our spacecraft!#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/036zSbMpKE
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 28, 2021
Beautiful presentation of our @MissionToPsyche payload! #PI_Daily https://t.co/RV2JSb5Il9
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 26, 2021
Our @MissionToPsyche spacecraft is typical in this way: we have radiating louvers to help remove excess heat from some parts, and we have heaters to help warm others. Thermal modeling is a big job. #PI_DAILY https://t.co/382uoaQKqK
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 23, 2021
Some steps in refining an estimate of any kind, for your use and tailoring:
1. WAG = wild ass guess
2. ROM = rough order of magnitude
3. "do a sniff test"
4. CBE = current best estimate
5. LRE = latest revised estimate#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/Ofs3ciuu78— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 22, 2021
Here's how we decided to share the spacecraft build w our partner @Maxar. Ppl told us this was a big risk, but it's turned out to be one of our strongest decisions.#PI_Daily @MissionToPsyche
A Brain, a Body and Courage — but it’s not the Wizard of Oz https://t.co/lCPVebaJ8C
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 21, 2021
Scale is one of the thrills of space exploration: Time, distance, temperature.
Turns out it's a thrill of #PI_Daily, too: @MissionToPsyche spacecraft will travel 2.4 billion km on its path to Psyche, and right now, we obsess abt calibrating telescope foci w/in a few wavelengths. pic.twitter.com/YG7wQOOhdW
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 20, 2021
Congratulations to @IngenuityNasa team on your historic first flight, from @MissionToPsyche team! We're inspired by your epic work!
One day we'll be sending back our first photos. Probably won't look like this, but we're using our imagination to be ready…#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/xKyjXRoqPf
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 19, 2021
High Bay interview!
I was pretty overcome, seeing the @MissionToPsyche spacecraft for the first time at @NASAJPL, and talking about the team and the spacecraft with @Dr_ThomasZ.#PI_Daily https://t.co/HaM5EfBQw2
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 15, 2021
Right now the @MissionToPsyche team is getting briefed on our @SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch. Whoa.#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/wkPenyOHwE
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 14, 2021
Generally we think meteorites can carry a magnetic field today only if their parent body, 4.5 billion years ago, had a core dynamo that created a magnetic field, just as Earth's does today. But….#PI_Daily @MissionToPsyche all-team meeting pic.twitter.com/aXYoI5dgAP
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 14, 2021
Some high points of today's @MissionToPsyche all-team meeting:
– nuts-and-bolts of the final days of the chassis at Maxar before ship to JPL
– new results on surface temps of Psyche
– new results on using magnetic gradiometryand…#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/XDXqPsy0Mw
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 13, 2021
Our program scientist, @IntrplnetSarah, painted this and we've just shown it to @MissionToPsyche the team during our all-team meeting. Great to be able to be together (~130 of us right now) even on Webex to congratulate the progress we've made this year despite it all.#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/LvgvgBzdRU
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 13, 2021
.@MissionToPsyche spring all-team meeting is tomorrow and Weds (virtual).
Tomorrow: asteroid thermal modeling, imager and magnetometer build reports, student art, data archive plans, mission ops plans, neutron measurement analysis, and more.#PI_Daily
Photo: Feb. 2019 team mtg pic.twitter.com/grNugJzj77
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 12, 2021
Can't show the spacecraft yet (photos in review, stay tuned…) but this is what I looked like right after seeing, for the first time in over a year, that miracle of engineering, our big @MissionToPsyche deep-space spacecraft!
A pretty special #PI_Daily from me. pic.twitter.com/d1Xuns5GB1
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 10, 2021
Just flew to Burbank! Soon will be back at @NASAJPL for the first time in a year. And unusual PI_Daily for @MissionToPsyche.
#vaccinated #masked #socialDistanced pic.twitter.com/ktNArdqWa1
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 9, 2021
Right this minute, taking COVID training so that tomorrow I can…wait for it…visit @NASAJPL and see our @MissionToPsyche spacecraft in person for the first time in a year!
A moment of joy and anticipation, like a special present.#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/CPqZ2Kwdak
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 8, 2021
A more difficult #PI_Daily day…challenges with some builds, working on what best next steps are, schedule impact TBD.
"Welcome to ATLO," our fantastic PM Henry says, laughing. We'll figure it all out, just not by the end of today.
So, have some cactus flowers! Just bloomed. pic.twitter.com/oKVlajgok1
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 2, 2021
Haven't been in my office in months but I missed this beauty and came to take it home. Dan Goebel (author) is @MissionToPsyche s/c chief engineer. @marstimrdad, our project systems engineer, and he are two of the world's experts in electric propulsion. Invaluable.#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/IQ3wXucIrP
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) April 1, 2021