PI Daily, February 2022
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.
A looong day, with some progress on @MissionToPsyche, capped with a decent sunset (+/- construction trailer) and super-mala mapo tofu by wonderful @jamestanton. #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/660EXrFsHz
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 26, 2022
A typical @MissionToPsyche day of contrasts.
– Working the budget for the time up to launch
– Getting the latest stats on clearing the remaining PFRs (Problem Failure Reports)
– Giving a lecture for U Minn "Psyche: Electric Journey to a Metallic World." #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/9MMev2Qc2W— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 24, 2022
It's @MissionToPsyche Monthly Management Review 9 AM – 6 PM today. Listening to everyone's reports on challenges and wins. Sneaking in tweets. Biggest challenges are hardware anomalies whose root cause is not yet found. All missions get these…working thru ours. #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/o2lzKzEawQ
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 23, 2022
Heavy work on @MissionToPsyche now on out, some good news on hardware completion this week, and the perpetual challenges of sched and budget.
And this gorgeous Red-crowned parrot eating fruit above where I parked my car at @NASAJPL last week. 159 days to launch. #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/sleyHIBkoj
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 23, 2022
Such a true #PI_Daily. https://t.co/vLXSnQ6rf6
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 21, 2022
Taking a moment to celebrate women in STEM…surely we can celebrate all kinds of people all the time? (OK, I admit it, I just missed this post when it came out on the right day) 😃🙃 #PI_Daily https://t.co/h3HkO9tXPe
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 17, 2022
Psyche art intern shows the beautiful fluid flow of big impacts. #PI_Daily https://t.co/C4JuGnZbFo
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 17, 2022
Schedule challenges, hardware challenges, budget challenges…@MissionToPsyche has our usual share, 165 days from launch.
But today I was greeted by parrots (Red-crowned?) in a tree where I park my car at JPL. Lovely.#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/Iv8uW1CDdP
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 16, 2022
And @MissionToPsyche scores the cover of @IEEESpectrum!
Nice article by @marstimrdad and Dan Goebel, lead sys eng and chief eng on the mission, respectively.
Art by @peter_rubin #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/utVYwtj5nj— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 15, 2022
Today: Discussions w NASA HQ abt @MissionToPsyche budget for upcoming Phase E, and meetings abt some hardware and software decisions, and our usual morning ATLO briefing.
This is what I saw on a rapid walk btwn meetings (trying to do this every day): African daisies.#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/iRULkYaD6H
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 11, 2022
It's @MissionToPsyche all-team meeting this morning, a half-hour virtual update. We're going over a couple of issues that turned up in TVAC testing, and, happily, crossing other challenges off our list as solved.
172 days to launch!#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/LNEQgRsrUP
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 9, 2022
Moon over highbay 2 at JPL.
The @MissionToPsyche spacecraft is back inside, having complete thermal-vac testing. On to the rest of the environments campaign! #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/teaGOP8Sum
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 8, 2022
Team is beginning to move at JPL…here's the entrance hall to the building where @MissionToPsyche team will be during launch, cruise, and science operations.
And the freezer that will hold team ice cream during the intense parts.#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/Mk65JcaYl1
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 4, 2022
…in highbay 2 the support structure for the 20 kW solar panels from @Maxar is ready for installation and testing to begin.
Total spacecraft+solar array length: 24.7 m.#PI_Daily @MissionToPsyche pic.twitter.com/W1XAI1fVBf
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 3, 2022
The @MissionToPsyche spacecraft is coming out of thermal-vac (pictured) and moving back into highbay 2 at JPL…#PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/LZC763zohj
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 3, 2022
SIX MONTHS TO LAUNCH. #PI_Daily @MissionToPsyche
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 2, 2022
Here's the @MissionToPsyche model our ATLO manager made so that people in the thermo-vac control room could more immediately see the physical relationships among the sensor measurements reading out on their consoles. (In real life our antenna is not a coffee lid) #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/AQMAfpls0t
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 2, 2022
Can reach 40x solar constant at Earth!
Thermal-vac @NASAJPL showing the solar basement, bottom and top of custom bulb array. Dings in metal are from occasional exploding lamps. Luckily @MissionToPsyche is going away from Sun, not toward.
(photos shared w permission) #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/q5GBBn3AX8— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 1, 2022
And @MissionToPsyche's spacecraft is coming out of the big @NASAJPL thermal-vacuum chamber, after more than two weeks of testing at temperatures and pressures expected in flight. Good results. Will tweet more photos later today! #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/mDG6obsKWE
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 1, 2022
Across the desert to California. Hello Pacific Ocean! Tomorrow, JPL and for the rest of the week. #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/97KSWG36qD
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) February 1, 2022