On Tuesday through Thursday we do our testing, review the data, and then let the mechanical crew change the test configuration and continue on. We make great progress once we get into a good rhythym. There are many decisions to be made and I think I make very good ones as both the NASA JPL and NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center people agree with my decisions. By late Thursday we complete this series of tests and I can have a day off on Friday.
On Friday I get up early and drive back home from Pasadena to Long Beach. As I am on the I-5 freeway I am looking up ahead and catch the glimpse of a dark pickup truck that appears to be headed sideways across the freeway - either having hit the right side guard rail or maybe having a tire blow out. Soon there is chaos and I hear screeching brakes and I smell rubber burning on the road. A big accident! I move over to the right lane and see that the dark truck, a big rig, and two other cars have made contact. Some serious contact. I just continue on because I have no special medical skills or other skills that could help the situation. When I get home I stop in at the grocery store for supplies and then I get on the mountain bicycle for the two hour ride to the old yacht club and back. After a shower I catch up on paperwork and all of the things that didn;t get done because I've been away the entire work week.
I'm up at 5:30 am on Saturday and ride the motorcycle to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to continue testing. There are delays. We can't find the handles to close some high pressure valves. The force gages are not reading properly. There are charge amplifiers and summing junction boxes that are changed out. It is just a miserable and trying day. We make some low level test runs in the afternoon. The simulations are predicting the behavior of the test article well - this is good. But finally we decide to quit for the day after 4pm because we've been hard at this beast all day and we're all getting tired. We could make catastrophic decisions and mistakes. It is a good calll to stop and rest on Sunday and restart on Monday morning. I have a good motorcycle ride home and then relax on Saturday - feeling bad that I missed a good day for cycling.
I get to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory above Pasadena very early in order to avoid traffic. I go sit in the cafeteria and enjoy a blueberry muffin and orange juice while reviewing the week's activities. The entire team puts its head down and keeps making progress through long hours. We have some NASA Goddard Space Flight Center people from Maryland come and visit and I have to babysit them and explain all of the tests and the results that we are getting. Fortunately they only stay for two days. Finally by Friday it doesn't look like we are going to finish so I extend my hotel reservation to work and leave on Saturday. But we keep lugging away and stay very late on Friday and do finish. I am mentally exhausted. These vibration tests are stressing because you want to shake the test article hard enough to make sure it will survive launch but you don't want to shake it so hard that you break it. I'm a mental vegetable on Friday night.
On Sunday I get out in the cold and rain threatening weather to meet up with Derrick at the dam. We start back towards Long Beach and pick up another wheel sucker cyclist on the way who is playing music (not on headphones). I increase the pace a few times to lose him, but its hard to lose someone when you're already over your "infinite distance" speed. But because I am doing all of the pulling and he is behind Derrick, I don't have to put up with this guy's music except when it bounces off walls under roads and freeways. I feel like dropping back and making some comment about "inconsiderate music playing wheel suckers", but I just keep going and pulling Derrick with me. When we stop for a break at the aquarium I notice a large staple in Derrick's rear tire. When he pulls it out he claims to hear hissing but I don't, so I just say let's head back up the river trail and see where we get. It turns out Derrick makes it home only having to stop once to pump up the tire. I relax with a relatively boring Brasilian Grand Prix and some house cleaning. I am still mentally exhausted and cannot get into any of the mental tasks or reading that I need or want to do.