MULTIMEDIA: SDC PICTURES
The Detector Assembly Under Construction
Here we see the detector assembly under construction. The environment in which it is being assembled is called a
clean room. Clean rooms are places where the number of dust particles in the air is lower than average. This is to keep dust from getting on sensitive electronics and detectors.
Finished Electronics Box
Here we see the finished electronics box connected to the cable. Inside this box is all the circuitry that makes the SDC work. Notice how these electronics are completely encased. This is to ensure that no stray electric charge goes onto the circuits and shorts things.
The SDC
All three components of the SDC assembled and ready to be put into the New Horizons spacecraft. If you will notice, the dust detector itself is protected from dust hitting it before it is supposed to.
SDC and Testing Equipment
This picture shows some of the SDC team next to the finished instrument and some of the testing equipment. While they may look kind of spooky, the
white suits everyone is wearing are worn to protect the instrument from dust, dirt, and
dead skin that could come off human bodies.
The Mess of Wires
A spacecraft is a complex device. We see in this image some of the guts of the New Horizons spacecraft. All these wires connect to different instruments aboard the craft and to the craft itself, so that the data can get back to Earth via the High Gain Antenna.
New Horizons
A technician kneels in front of the to-be-assembled New Horizons spacecraft. This is where the SDC will live once it leaves the Earth.
The Detector Assembly
This is the "important part" of the SDC. The detector. You can see here the individal cells that will gather the particles once the SDC is out in space. This is a very delicate piece of instrumentation and it looks very cool!
Working on the Electronics
You can't just make a piece of electronics and expect it to immediately work. You have to test it and make sure it works. We see here one of the students testing a
board to make sure all the circuitry is correct. The table he's working on is a special
static free table. So is his coat and band around his wrist. This may seem like a lot of precautions to take, but if the instrument were to get out into space and we found out that a little static had messed up the board, there would be nothing we could do to fix it. So while it's still here on Earth, we do everything we can to make sure nothing happens to it.
SDC Electronics Board
Here's an electronics board. You can see right away that there is a lot of repetition here. This is a good thing. There are a lot of panels on the detector and each one of them has to have its own series of circuitry. That way, if one of them breaks, the entire thing doesn't break. Plus, it looks cool in a photograph!