Aug 19th, 2017, Fort Laramie, Wyoming.
Photo credit: dmguakler
Doubts are creeping in, are we prepared?
Well, we have time, so we continue to practise. I have always been involved in sports but never have I prepared for so long to only have one shot, one day. Our team has covered the entire emotional spectrum from elation that funding was secured to disappointment weekly that we still had not perfected gathering the data.
Are we ready?
I’ve asked team leadership over and over to consider any additional risks for failure and no one can come up with any more contingency plans.
We are checking all the systems to make sure nothing was damaged during the drive. One iridium modem for tracking one of the large balloon payloads is not working, but we have a backup.
We are fortunate enough to have volunteers simulating our flights as they walk around with our payloads and we confirm we have tracking and our sensor data is recording as expected.
I get to meet Kimberly and Rebecca Yeung for the first time today, two sisters from Seattle, who are our new, young weather balloon engineers! I have been emailing in preparation for their balloon flight with us. Our team is aware they are a part of our group and we are all excited to work with them.
There has been a request to give a presentation to folks staying here and we are happy to oblige. We also have a separate team in Glendo, WY doing outreach as well with solar filters on telescopes.
The experience for the students to talk about their projects is invaluable.