Monday, August 2, 2021
By:
This week at SPS: This week, several of us got together and watched a short movie after catching up about our week a little, so this was great! We also had a talk about a fantastic undergrad research program aimed at the lower classman at universities who want to get into research!
This week at NASA: I am looking forward to getting more quotes back in on some parts to compare with those I have already received. I have also been working on presentations and final submissions of my work this summer for EXCLAIM and the Goddard Space Flight Center intern program.
Mind-blowing fact of the week: So, EXCLAIM is strapping a telescope onto a balloon. Why not just build it on the ground, or put a satellite in orbit? Well, while a balloon mission has its challenges, the reasons for using one are simpler than you might expect. Building a telescope on the ground is great and it’s easy to make changes or repairs, but then you have atmospheric interference in your data, and there can be orbiting satellites in orbit blocking a portion of telescope and so on. A satellite on the other hand is more expensive to put in orbit and is a one-time deal. Once it’s up, you can’t easily get it down to change things on it. With a balloon, it can be sent up, retrieved, repaired, or modified, and sent up again!
Joseph Watson