Saturday we continued getting ready for the Away 38 mission. We pulled the main controller and one of the camera controllers off the vehicle for chase a couple of problems. We spent most of the day in pursuit of a spurious balloon release firing. We’re narrowed it down to the main controller that flew on the Away 35 mission. It only happens on a fully charged battery and only if heavy transmission loads are experienced in the first 10 minutes of operation. It sounds like a bad transistor in the relay amp, but we haven’t found it yet. We replaced the controller, but we’re going to shake it out some more to be sure.
The second camera controller got a software upgrade. It was reseting after it executed a command sent to it my the main controller. It didn’t effect it’s function, but it needed to get fixed. Normally the camera controllers are autonomous. This one we’re linked to the main controller so it’s tied in to the launch command.
A new cable harness for the still cameras was finished and the search for the mission panel continued. When the new carpet went in everything was in chaos. Somehow we managed to lose a panel of a new balloon we’re making. How can you lose something 28 feet long!!
Here’s some more images from the test:
Rocket 1
Rocket 2
