Colors of Montsinery

Montsinery is a nice and quiet village between Kourou and Cayenne. The Montsinery river passes along the village where some activities are proposed by the Centre Nautique (Yacht club). On the opposite banks the mangroves can be observed with the associated fauna: i.e. Scarlet Ibis (Ibis Rouge), if you have some luck.
Walking around the village, you will notice the colorful wall paintings expressing themes related to nature and music which welcome any curious traveler ...

Echostar-17 declared a problem

According to a press article recently issued, it has become public that, MSG-3 co-passenger on the next Ariane 5 flight, Echostar-17, a telecom satellite, has a problem. Last week, Arianespace informed the MSG teams working at CSG that all available resources are put in place to resolve this issue as soon as possible but the flight VA207 will however have to be delayed. In simple words this means that the MSG-3 launch date planned on the 19th of June is not realistic anymore.
Formal consolidated information from Arianespace,  ESA and EUMETSAT will follow shortly.

Practically speaking, TAS, ESA and EUMETSAT teams are being redeployed to accommodate this "stand by" period till activity is back on track.

Be sure that very few only are of the opinion that they will spend the rest of their life in French Guyana....

Some other have planned to make some appropriate readings for morale boosting or personal development :-)

Credits: Amazon

Despite these unexpected news, things were going so far  very well on the MSG side (we just had a successful review authorising the fuelling!). All team members believe that, despite the delay, the job will be completed soon.
Let's wish a good trip back for those who have left Kourou and hope that we shall soon welcome them again. During this expected short period they certainly deserve to have a good rest at home and enjoy to meet with their respective families.
For those who stay, for sure the MSG-3 team spirit shall remain in order to complete the (expected short) babysitting phase that starts now. In addition, the morale here in CSG is very high!
Last but not least, let's wish Echostar-17 team good luck to quickly fix the issue.

MSG-3 on the weighing scale

Before fuelling MSG-3, the exact dry mass of the satellite needs to be determined. This dry mass, summed up with the mass of propellant plus/minus the few red and green tag items to be added and removed for launch, will provide the exact mass the spacecraft at launch.

The dry mass is calculated with a method called in French the "double pesée" (double weighing). This enables to eliminate the inaccuracy of the weighing method.

The principle is simple:

You use a calibrated load cell, you make two measurements of the device you want to determine the exact mass and you repeat the same measurement with calibrated load masses. The sum of all the calibrated masses to reach the exact weight of the specimen as read on the load cell gives you the exact mass. There are also some mathematics formulas to apply to get the final value and increase accuracy and precision.

First, the lifting device is weighed,

then MSG-3 is weighed and the masses read on the load cell are respectively recorded.

As the load cell is digital, it is need to add small masses to "pass" the digit for accuracy purposes.

The little pot, you see above is not to get the last drop of oil during servicing or to collect money for the coffee club, it is just the right place to put the small masses to "pass" the digit and get an accurate value on the load cell. As it can be seen on the picture below, the mass read after the addition of these small loads  has "passed" the digit to exactly indicate 2104,0 kgs.

The last part of the measurement consists to weigh calibrated masses as showed below. As explained above, the sum up of all these calibrated loads plus a bit of mathematics will provide the exact value.

This second weighing is made first for the lifting device  (to obtain Mp) and then for the Spacecraft plus the lifting device (to obtain Me). Each of these measurements is repeated twice.

The dry mass of the MSG-3 spacecraft calculated today is : Me-Mp=1064,6 kgs.

For memory the value obtained for MSG-2 almost 7 years ago, calculated with the same method was 1068,0 kgs, showing a difference of less than 0,4%.

As expected MSG-2 and MSG-3 are really twins :-)

Family pictures - 2

On 23/05/2012 there was a second opportunity to gather around the spacecraft to welcome the new colleagues just arrived at CSG. As it can be seen on the pictures below, the spacecraft is getting closer and closer to its final flight configuration.
At this stage of the campaign, this is the right moment to give a big applause to the Thales team which has been performing with talent, a lot of competence and always on a in a very friendly and professional way.

Thales Team

Then comes our dear Customer: EUMETSAT (from left to right): Georges, Sergio, Gianfranco, Margareth, Christian, Jean-Claude and Antonio

The ESA team (from left to right): Francois, Cyril,..and a  special welcome to Stéfane, Rolf and Ferran who just arrived

All together:  the MSG dream team

TAS, EUMTSAT, ESA and our CSG colleagues.

Note: the long "grey snake" on the floor and facing the spacecraft is a ventilation pipe which is used to cool down the battery during the charging cycle

...and now ready for the fuelling?

Saftey again: the "sock" test

In few weeks, once fuelled, MSG-3 will be moved to the BAF (Batiment Assemblage Final/Final Assembly Building) where it will be mated on the Ariane 5 rocket. The few MSG-3 team members that will be authorised to operate in this building do have to follow a safety training. One of the practical tests is to train people to quickly escape from the top of this facility in case of danger.
As it can be seen on the picture below, the BAF, which accommodates the rocket is in fact a tower. The staff operating on the payload are working on the PFEI (PlateForme Elevatrice Inférieure) at the 9th level which is located in the upper part of this building. You may then take an external staircase, or even better:
are you ready for the big jump?

In case of alarm, the staff shall have to move quickly into a shelter located on the ground floor or even to leave the BAF. In both cases, if staff are operating on the PFEI, they imperatively need to use a (very) long "sock" to evacuate.
Posted signs indicate the way to follow... up to this closed door.

Then, you just open it to discover the sock in which you will have to jump in.
By walking on the grid, you get a shower, not to wake you up, but to decontaminate or put out your clothes in case of need.

Before jumping, have a look upstairs to make sure that nobody is already on its way. First, he/she may fall on your neck and second it is not sure that jams in socks have ever been tested...

Once on your way down, the speed can easily be regulated just by spreading elbows and/or knees. The trip from top to bottow will anyway last few seconds. So no time to be scared by local bugs that will be slightly surprised but for sure disturbed as the sock is fortunately extremely rarely used.

The training for the "sock" test  is performed in a dedicated tower in order not to disturbed operations in the BAF. In such a case members of fire brigade helps the trainees landing on the ground floor or those who may get stuck to get out...

In any case, Christian was ready to wake up fainting or shocked colleagues.

Finally everything went very well, all MSG-3 team members successfully passed the test and qualified for BAF operations.

A special thank you to Vincente (who took the picture), our training manager today, and the two firemen (members of the Paris Fire Brigade).

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Brazilian giant turtle, Tortue denticulée (Chelonoidis Denticulata, Testudinidae),  D6, Roura mountains, 20th May 2012

Observing the Spectacled Caiman

The Spectacled Caiman (Caïman à lunettes), can be observed at night. This is a traditional night excursion made at the Kaw swamp.
We embarked on a pirogue from the "floating camp" at 20:30 sharp in the complete dark. Our guide, Gilbert, had only a light halogen torch mounted on his head. He was standing at the rear side for piloting the pirogue. As the boat was moving, he was regularly sweeping the river bed from left to right and right to left with the beam of his lamp. The trick is that, in the complete dark, the eyes of the caiman strongly reflects the light when on the surface of the water. With such a technique we were able to approach a young caiman after 15 minutes. Great!
We continued our way for further observations. Then, after another evidence of the presence of a caiman, Gilbert re directed swiftly the pirogue in right direction without engine power to reach the targeted place. The boat slided silently in the complete dark toward the flooded bank while he was getting to the front. All passenger lights were switched off according to his instructions, but suddenly we just eared a noise as if  someone fell in the water...

At the Kaw Swamp

Since 1998, Kaw swamp (reserve naturelle des Marais de Kaw) is a natural park. This place is quiet impressive by its size (94700ha) and the number of (protected) species that can be found, in particular the avifauna.
Located roughly 60kms southwest from Cayenne, the Kaw swamp is a in fact a flooded savanna. During the rainy season (April to June), most of the places, village and farms can only be reached by pirogues. Local tour operators propose various options to visit this outstanding place. An exciting one is to spend a day on a floating Carbet (Lodge Caïman). Wandering on the Kaw river with a pirogue, gives a unique opportunity to observe many rare species as they live here since milenaries. At night, in quasi open air accommodation one can ear the superb concert given by the night "players" of this complex and rich ecosystem...