PI Daily, November 2023
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.
The very nice Residence Inn staff where I'm staying near @NASAJPL (ever wondered how this works, when I actually live in Arizona?) had a pumpkin contest yesterday.
Right now, the @MissionToPsyche s/c is 31.7 light sec away & today is EP (elec propulsion) purge & prime. #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/DvS3sdpo9Y
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 1, 2023
World record: @MissionToPsyche spacecraft contains 1,085.5 kg of xenon, the most ever launched.
Today we vent and prime the EP system! #ElectricPropulsion #PI_Daily
(photo of rocket engine, not EP) pic.twitter.com/PJ346QlKpr
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 1, 2023
The @MissionToPsyche team is prepping the Deep Space Optical Comms. It's big! Part of it is the silver thing hanging under the s/c. And here is me holding the temporary cover of the sunshade cover-the white round item in photo, that just was opened in space this week. #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/3HHqc6RI9h
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 2, 2023
Shortly after @MissionToPsyche launch I talked with Sarah Al-Ahmed of @exploreplanets about launch day. What a day!! #PI_Dailyhttps://t.co/kWI7DYjQhX
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 3, 2023
One of my favorite new things: I get space weather reports so we can prepare if a coronal mass ejection is going to hit our spacecraft! (Don't worry, mainly fine, has already happened in fact, it's a high solar maximum this time.) @MissionToPsyche #PI_Daily pic.twitter.com/4Kz1y2h18r
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 6, 2023
Wait for it…White-tufted grebe in Buenos Aires. AND @MissionToPsyche spacecraft successfully tested our electric propulsion thrusters! #PI_Daily #onVacation pic.twitter.com/dCZpG6KhvI
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 8, 2023
Our @MissionToPsyche s/c is 52 light-sec one-way for comms now, everything going well. Gamma-Ray and Neutron spectrometer, built by @JHUAPL, is now on and functioning perfectly! And the imager bake-out (removing any volatiles still clinging to it) started yesterday. #PI_Daily
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 14, 2023
And @MissionToPsyche spacecraft is 59.7 light-seconds away as I type this, on board the NatGeo Explorer off Grytviken, South Georgia. What a world!
This week is support of gamma-ray spectrometer check-out, and continued laser comms (DSOC) activities. #PI_Daily— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 19, 2023
And @MissionToPsyche is in its 40th day! Operations going very well, proceeding through checkout of gamma-ray spectrometer and prepping for imagers, repeated tests of thrusters, and more. My own graph I'm keeping just for fun. S/c is 63 light-seconds away. #PI_Daily #OnVacation pic.twitter.com/2xx4yihaR1
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 21, 2023
It's @MissionToPsyche mission day 46, and our spacecraft is 72.9 light-seconds away. #PI_Daily #OnVacationhttps://t.co/1MYQI20Q7W pic.twitter.com/KDq9cWbhnk
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) November 27, 2023