Did we draw the long straw or the short straw when we heard in July that we would be the last team to test our device in the MASK basin at Carderock?
Water Power Technologies Office
September 23, 2016
minute read time
Did we draw the long straw or the short straw when we heard in July that we would be the last team to test our device in the MASK basin at Carderock? We’ll certainly be older we thought, possibly wiser, maybe even better informed. What we didn’t realize was how much more relaxed we’d be as the rush to complete our device, test it, load it into the container, finish the team test plan etc. etc. by the July deadline has all faded into the past.
After a well- earned summer break, we’ll swing back into action next week, open up the container, open up the crate and prep SEWEC for tank testing in the week of October 6th. As a warm-up we have been reviewing the vacuum pump we will be using to pull most of the air out of Sewec – enough to get the same “air elasticity” expected with the much higher pressure swings that will be generated in a full scale unit. We lucked out again in finding another great supplier/partner to help us in the competition – Associated Vacuum Services of Santa Anna, California www.avsvac.net. Bob Tumbrello, GM at Associated Vacuum had our pump pre-tested and promptly uploaded a video so we can see what are getting https://youtu.be/lnhYjNnxmzw.
Not only that, Bob encouraged us mightily by associating us with previous technology pioneers he has supported – his company has just built a satellite chamber for SPACE X https://youtu.be/wlzJ1mrsnoQ and a few years ago they did the testing for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer project which was on the Endeavour shuttle’s last payload up to the International Space Station.
AMS shuttled by Endeavor
AMS loaded into Endeavor’s cargo bay
Says Bob - “We’re a small group of people doing very big things sometimes - it’s a lot of fun!”
Looking back on our hectic build phase we worked with a whole slew of professionals who enthusiastically helped us with our special needs. We have been very lucky – they all hit it out of the park.
Back to the checklist for Carderock. Nick, Tom, Byron, Carol, Sean – we’re back on stage! Now where did we stash the keys to our PackRat container?