Spacecraft Assembly

Instrument Installations

April 17, 2008

We installed two instruments on the Orbiter this week. LEND is fully integrated, both electrically and mechanically. The instrument checked out fine today when we ran it through its paces. We used a small radioactive source to generate neutrons. Both the Optical Telescope Assembly and the Main Electronics Box of LOLA are mounted on the spacecraft. We will do the electrical hook-ups tomorrow.

The blanket team has been working hard. They prepared the solar array gimbal for its thermal vacuum test this week, and they are fabricating the blankets we need for the High-Gain Antenna System. Meanwhile, they are creating the templates necessary to build the blankets for the rest of the spacecraft.

Glenn Byron, Greg Martins, and Suk Yoon prepare the High-Gain Antenna System for deployment testing while Mike Golob looks on from the doorway. The system is completely assembled and ready for blankets.


The LOLA OTA is inspected prior to integration with the Orbiter.


The mechanical team installs LEND on the Orbiter.

  Ka-band communications system | Completing Integration Phase