Day 19, November 12, 2012 -- Suspending and grounding

As you may know, EBEX is a big payload. In fact, it is the heaviest payload CSBF has ever flown, and it is so tall we actually weren't even sure we'd be able to pick it up inside the high bay here at the LDB facility in Antarctica. After some measuring, consulting with 3D models, and discussion, we tried it  -- and we can pick the thing up with a whole 8" of travel left on the crane hook -- no problem!

The other big endeavor was debugging grounding issues. After having mounted the bolometer readout (BRO) crates and power system on the gondola, we were finding things electrically shorted to the gondola where they shouldn't have been. Shaul and Franky were on the case, though, and managed to track down the different sources of ground shorts and fix them.

I wasn't actually in the high bay, due to having been up late dealing with the cryostat pumps, but I did get a chance to take some pictures in the fantastic low-sun lighting around 1AM on the road back from LDB.

Pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104253244018605213307/EBEXInAntarctica20121112