Thermalgal’s Temperate Mumblings

What a week…

Thing have been really hectic at work. The satellite is finishing integration and the first *big* test was started this week. Being a thermal engineer, my job is more hardware than software, so I really only have one satellite test and that won’t be until the end of next month. But, I needed to get some hardware baked out this week at the last minute and that created all sorts of headaches. For those who are wondering what getting hardware “baked out” means… doesn’t it figure that the best Google hit I get for this is from our local competitor… So, I’m not gonna post the link. Vacuum bakeout of hardware is an effective way to minimize contaminant transfer via outgassing at low pressures, reducing the risk of on-orbit spacecraft performance degradation and failure. Basically, when a component gets warm when it is under a vacuum, it starts to outgas. And what is actually outgassed could cause contamination. So, we heat up components to beyond what they except to see in flight so the component will outgass everything before it goes into orbit. That way particles of bad stuff won’t land on the payload optics.And for those who wonder this is what I’m working on…Rocsat-3Enough about work… I leave for Myrtle Beach in less than a week! I’m going to my very first stitching retreat. The retreat is through Lazy Daizy and will have three classes. Teresa Wentzler, Karen Weaver, and Jennifer Aikman-Smith will each be teaching a class. I’m so excited!