EXCITE 2024: Payload Prep

NASA Goddard astrophysicist Kyle Helson looks at EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) as it dangles from the ceiling of a hangar at NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: A man looks at a large telescope in a hangar.

Image description: A crane suspends a shiny silver telescope in a large hangar at night. The top is conical, with a section cut out for a cylinder. The body is rhombus-shaped and has two shiny rectangular panels attached to the bottom that extend slightly in front of the telescope. The background shows the hangar is full of equipment, and the foreground shows the outside of the building. There are orange cones in front of the hanger doors. A person in a reflective vest and hard hat stands to the left of the open doors.

Every fall, CSBF launches multiple missions like EXCITE from the Fort Sumner Municipal Airport, shown here.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: Two hangars rise above an arid landscape.

Image description: Two metal buildings stand in an arid landscape. The sky is a dusty blue, shading to white at the horizon and takes up the top two-thirds of the image. The lower third is occupied by the two buildings. The first, an aircraft hangar, is long and gray with a domed top. The second building, to the right of the first, is smaller but taller. It’s white with “NASA” written in red on the side. In the foreground are brown grasses and scrubby green bushes.

Fort Sumner is home to wildlife like scorpions, tarantulas, and jack rabbits.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: A jack rabbit sits on a pebbly road.

Image description: A long-eared brown and white jack rabbit looks alertly at the camera. Both ears are extended above its head. It’s seated to the right side of a brown dirt road. To the left of the road are long brown and green grasses. To the right are trees. Out-of-focus buildings are visible in the distance.

Tim Rehm, a graduate student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, installs a protective lid over the opening of EXCITE’s telescope.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: A man works on a telescope in a hangar.

Image description: A man in a blue shirt and an orange and camo baseball cap uses a small wrench to install a plastic cover over the opening of a telescope. He’s standing behind and to the right of the telescope and is visible from the waist up. The telescope is a shiny silver cylinder with a black knob in the middle inside a white metal frame. Coils of black cable rest on the front of the frame. Text on a white metal structure beneath the telescope, at lower right, reads "Danger, Pinch Point." The man and the telescope are inside a large white hangar.

Annalies Kleyheeg, a graduate student at Brown, attaches one of the radiator panels EXCITE uses to shed heat produced by its cryocooler. Rehm and Helson assist.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: A woman attaches a part to a telescope with assistance from two men.

Image description: A woman in a cream cardigan and blue baseball cap attaches a shiny silver rectangular panel to a telescope. The image is framed so she stands between two men with their backs to the camera, with the panel in between them. The man on the left wears a yellow reflective vest and a camo baseball hat. The man on the right wears a black T-shirt. The woman only rises to the halfway point of the telescope. The telescope, in the background, is a shiny silver cylinder in a rhombus-shaped base with white boxes attached to the side.

Lee Bernard, a graduate student at Arizona State University in Tempe, connects an LED light so the team can read a thermometer inside the gondola via a camera feed during flight.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: A man uses a hot air gun to solder two wires.

Image description: A bearded man wearing a red-and-blue plaid shirt and glasses holds what looks like a black hairdryer — a hot air gun. He’s on the right side of the image, with his head tilted toward the camera. The hot air gun is also tilted toward the camera, with the interior visible and glowing orange. The man holds two attached wires in front of the hot air gun with his other hand. The white wall in the background is covered in a large-gauge wire mesh and has several outlets attached.

Peter Nagler, EXCITE’s principal investigator, carefully attaches steel weights to the top of the telescope to balance it. EXCITE is so stable once balanced that it can hold a steady gaze on a U.S. quarter coin from 60 miles away.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: A man attaches weights to a telescope in a hangar.

Image description: A bearded man in a black T-shirt, a tan baseball hat, and blue gloves grins while he works on a shiny silver telescope. The camera is looking up at him, so he’s only visible from the waist up behind the telescope. His left hand is lifted, and his right hand holds the screw attaching a large weight to the cylinder of the telescope. He’s in a large white hangar. The telescope rests in a metal frame with many wires and other pieces of electrical equipment attached.

Khing Klangboonkrong, a Brown graduate student, covers EXCITE with single-sided aluminized Mylar. The material reflects sunlight to keep the telescope from getting too hot when it reaches 130,000 feet.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: A woman works on a telescope in a hangar.

Image description: A woman in a navy T-shirt, white baseball cap, and purple gloves places shiny foil-like material on a large telescope. The image is framed so she’s only visible from the waist up. The telescope partially obscures the arm closest to the camera. The telescope is a shiny silver cylinder that has wires and other electrical equipment attached. It’s inside a large white hangar.

Helson and Rehm play catch during a break in Fort Sumner.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: Two men play catch in an arid landscape.

Image description: Two men play catch in an arid landscape. The closest man is on the left side of the image, standing in the shadow of a building out of frame. He’s wearing khaki shorts, a black T-shirt, and has a baseball glove on his left hand. Further away, on the right side of the image, is a man in jeans, a gray T-shirt, and an orange baseball cap. He’s standing on one foot, having just thrown a baseball, which hovers between the two men. They’re standing on a large concrete pad. In the distance, the landscape is green and brown, with darker dots of green along the horizon. The sky is blue and clouds are visible near the horizon.

A vehicle called Big Bill picks up EXCITE so facility personnel can attach crash pads, ballast, and antennas.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: A vehicle hoists a telescope in front of a hangar.

Image description: A large white vehicle with two enormous front tires uses a long arm to lift a shiny silver telescope. The vehicle is on the right side of the image. A man in a reflective vest and a hard hat stands on the right side of the tire. On the side of the vehicle, the word “Bill” is visible. The arm extends along and in front of the vehicle. It holds the telescope at the end of a cable. The telescope has a conical top, with the left side cut open. The base is rhombus-shaped. Rectangular panels are attached to the bottom of the telescope on the left side. Four cardboard squares are attached to the four corners of the base. Behind the telescope is a large white hangar. The camera is placed so it’s looking up at the scene, with the Sun peeking out from behind the hangar.

Away from the hangar, engineers run a test called compatibility to ensure EXCITE can communicate with the tower at the Fort Sumner airport during flight.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: Figures in safety gear stand around a vehicle hoisting a telescope.

Image description: A large white vehicle with two enormous front tires uses a long arm to lift a shiny silver telescope. The arm extends along and in front of the vehicle. The top of the telescope is conical, with a section cut out for a cylinder. The body is rhombus-shaped and has two shiny rectangular panels attached to the bottom that extend slightly in front of the telescope. A half circle of orange cones outlines a safety perimeter under the telescope and in front of the vehicle. A group of eight people in reflective vests and hard hats cluster in front of the vehicle. They’re all standing on a large concrete pad. The sky in the background is clear and blue.

Garrison Breeding and Peter Calhoun, Peraton, Inc. members of the balloon facility team, smile for the camera during EXCITE’s compatability test.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: Two men stand on the platform of a large vehicle.

Image description: Two men in hard hats and yellow-and-orange reflective vests stand on a metal platform surrounded by metal bars. The man on the left points at the camera and has his other arm around the shoulder of the other man. The platform sits above the spoke attaching two enormous wheels of a large vehicle. Part of one wheel is visible on the left side of the image. A large metal arm extends across the middle of the platform and out of frame. The sky in the background is clear and blue.

EXCITE dangles a few inches off the ground during a series of tests called night pointings to help calibrate the telescope ahead of flights.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: A telescope dangles from the ceiling of a hangar at night.

Image description: At night, a large shiny silver telescope dangles from the ceiling of a large white hanger. It’s framed by the hangar’s doors. The hangar is lit within by a dim red light, and white and green lights on the telescope stand out in the gloom. A line of orange cones stretches in front of the open hangar doors. The top of the telescope is conical, with a section cut out for a cylinder. The body is rhombus-shaped and has two shiny rectangular panels attached to the bottom that extend slightly in front of the telescope.

Rehm, Klangboonkrong, and StarSpec Technology’s Javier Romualdez look at the readout from EXCITE during a night pointing exercise.

Credit: NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak

Alt text: Three people look at a computer screen in a dark room.

Image description: Three people look at a computer screen in a dark room. A seated man on the left side of the image wears a dark T-shirt and a reflective vest. He’s poised to write something down in a notebook. Behind him and to his right stands a second man in a dark shirt and khaki pants. His arms are crossed. To their right is a seated woman in a light blue T-shirt. Her left hand covers her mouth, and her right hand is on the computer’s mouse.

During one night pointing exercise, EXCITE locked on to Beta Herculis, the brightest star in the constellation Hercules. The image on the left is out of focus. The image on the right is in focus.

Credit: NASA/EXCITE team

Alt text: Two snapshots of a star in infrared light. The left is out of focus, and the left is in focus.

Image description: This image shows two snapshots of the same star. The snapshot on the left shows a large, blurry, orange, donut-shaped object in a black square. The square is in a white grid space with four rows. The snapshot on the right shows a much smaller orange dot on the right side of a black square. It’s also embedded in a grid space, but with five rows.