Day 27, 4/21/09 -- Just a day in the life

Nothing particularly exciting happened today. We had our weekly telecon today, which is always fun. Milligan thinks he found a bug that's causing our flight computer to crash. Dan started some more calibration experiments today and is working on them tonight as well. Britt and Michele investigated some oddness in the gondola elevation drive. I spent a lot of the day trying to figure out how the rough idea for our extensive baffling's support structure will actually translate into a physically realizable structure, and I think I've got the basics worked out. We should be able to order metal soon.

Yesterday, I met Bill Stepp, who is the head of CSBF flight operations. Apparently, when he comes out, the flight season is getting close. He told us today that CREST, who showed up over the weekend, are looking to launch as early as next Tuesday! It must be nice to have an experiment that's that easy to put together. Then again...no guts, no glory!

The new basketball hoop is ready for use too. It's much less forgiving than the old one outside our door, which of course means that Dan just gained an even bigger advantage over the rest of us hacks. To inaugurate, Dan, Hannes, and I played a game of 21 -- and I won! Total luck, for sure, but I'll take it.

Also, I got new shoes. My old ones were falling apart, so I ordered a pair from Zappos -- the same exact model as my previous ones (Adidas Samba Milleniums, size 10.5 if you must know). I think they're the only things in New Mexico that aren't covered in dust (yet). What really sucks, though, is that I have two more brand new pairs waiting for me in Minnesota -- I just figured I wouldn't need them. Oops.

Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico042109#