http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/hga.mov
900kb

I've got a nice one to put up of the HGA gimble being tested as well

Doug

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/hga_gim.mov
1.8Mb - quite an interesting one

HGA is being installed tomorrow.

Solar arrays going on next Tuesday.

I hope we get some pictures at some stage with the complete craft in a fully deployed configuration - HGA up and arrays unfolded. That would best show the true scale of the spacecraft. And look cool.

Here we go!!

Looking at the pictures lately and all gesticulating going on, it'd be funny
to do a storyboard with captions for the whole process.

Left a bit....left a bit....oh too far take it back.
Hi Mum....!!

What can I say, I'm easily amused, saves me a fortune.

It's a good laugh watching it - pity they wont put a webfeed on for it instead of sequential stills

Evidently MRO is shy about getting dressed..

I think that's the big cover that seems to hang above anything they move around with the crane, which I previously mistook for a fat-guys shirt.

Doug

It's good to see the requisite number of people just standing around

Reminds me of what I once saw at a construction site during my commute. One guy down in a hole digging with four supervisors standing at the top, drinking coffee and watching him dig.

...but seriously, I'm sure everyone there is working very hard to get MRO together.

I'm setting off for a weekend away in a few minutes Wont get to see it get bolted on - be sure to save and attach lots of piccies for me

Doug

Its fasinating to watch a spacecraft get put together live, I don't think I have ever done that before. I hope they don't foget to wire lock the nuts etc for the HGA attatchment........not that they would ever do anything like that . Hope they are all working with one measurement unit this time.....

Looks like the team members are getting their instructions.

The antenna is now in position and being installed. I've saved a number of pictures, which I'll upload soon.

Edit: This is mainly for Doug, and others who may have missed the install and are interested. I've attached the first sequence of images. Sorry I don't have enough images and am not clever enough to make a .mov. The titles are indicative and reflect no expertise on my part!

I'll post the second sequence in a short while.

Here's the second sequence of images.
Looks like connections and checkout are continuing, but with fewer technicians than before.
I'll leave it here. On to solar array install next week!

Man, I hate having people look over my shoulder while I'm working! I couldn't help think about that guy tightening the bolts with everyone standing around - and all of us watching virtually. No pressure!!!!

My 100th post!! Happy to have such a great place to hang out.
-- Jonathan

The spacecraft has now been rotated so the gimbal assembly is at the top.

Does anyone know why this dish is black rather than the white we're accustomed to?

THANK YOU for all the attachments - I got to see them last night - It's BIG isnt it - almost the size of large outerplanets craft

Doug

Glad to help, Doug. Let's hope MRO serves as the first of a new wave of big spacecraft heading beyond Earth orbit.

Wow - big beast isnt it!

Doug

One of the Solar Panels has been attatched today.

Click to view attachment

Lots of pics at KSC - these are all 500kb+


http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/large/05pd1433.jpg
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/large/05pd1432.jpg
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/large/05pd1431.jpg
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/large/05pd1430.jpg
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/large/05pd1429.jpg
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/large/05pd1428.jpg
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/large/05pd1427.jpg

Doug

Unless it hasn't been mentioned before, the streaming feed is here: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/rrg2.p...der/aevideo3.rm

Ahh - I asked if they could do a streaming one, and they said no a while back

Now..the man from KSC..he say YES:)

Doug

Hmmm...streaming video demonstrates that things don't happen very fast in the spacecraft assembly business. I've been watching people shifting back and forth on their feet in the same place for the past 10 minutes. Reminds me that I should be doing my job instead of watching other people do theirs!!

Good Job Max!!!!!

They were testing solar cells with artificial light...

Now.. They were placing HGA protection!!!

I was wondering when that cover was going on. Anyone know what it is made of and what exactly it is supposed to protect the HGA from ?

Atmospheric drag when aerobraking I guess.

Perhaps they're trying to get in the Guinness Book of World Records for largest Jiffy Pop popcorn dish.

I've seen that fited to all mars spacecraft (MGS, MO, MEX, and now MRO) -

It MAY be to do with aerobraking - the HGA points away from the airflow during aerobraking, and I guess this cover helps tidy up airflow after it's gone around the 'back' of the dish

http://www.aerospaceguide.net/mars/mars_aerobrake.jpg shows it well

Or perhaps as someone mentioned here previously, it acts as a thermal insulator to stop the HGA acting as a massive radiator chilling the spacecraft. Perhaps it's for micro-meteorite protection acting as a very thing whipple shield.

Genesis, Stardust, Cassini, Ulysses, Voyager...DIDNT have it. MO, MGS, MO2K, MRO, MEX - all have. Must be a mars-specific thing.

First thing I thought when I saw the HGA being fitted was.. "Where's the cover?"

Doug

MRO looks menacing with its fully deployed HGA and solar panels.

No one would have believed in the last years of the L'zak Era that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than a martian's and yet as mortal as his own; that as martians busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a martian with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of acidic Meridiani water. With infinite complacency martians went to and fro under the surface of this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the extremophile infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the other worlds of space as sources of danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed sols. At most martian beings fancied there might be other beings upon Earth, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise, especially if it came bearing Mars bars. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the tasty Hesperia beasts, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded Mars with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their multi-year roadmaps against us. And then came the great disillusionment.

Now it's in triple-vision

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countd...o/video0lh.html

About HGA protection...
I found a PDF speaks about that "silver mesh" on HGA....
This is not for the "aerobraking"!!!
It inhibits dust accumulation on the reflective surface of HGA...
Read that PDF... I was searching that PDF for 2 hours....
Then... Why didn't Cassini have that "silver mesh"??? Saturn region has big dust concentration!!!?

What's this?