You Spin Me Right Round

• By Maggie Masetti
• May 26, 2011
• 2 Comments

Tuesday the 24th was a busy day here at Goddard – we had two big out-of-the-ordinary events. I was going to make them into two posts, but then I got my hands on a video which tied them both together nicely, so one it is. But before I get to the video, let me tell you what was going on!

The two big events were a visit to Goddard from actor Seth Green, known to geeks everywhere as Oz on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, Scott Evil in the Austin Powers series, the voice of Chris on “The Family Guy”, and the creative force behind “Robot Chicken”, to name a few. Did I mention he’s also a big “Star Wars” geek? I can honestly say I’m a big fan, so I was very excited to hear that he was coming here. He did a whirlwind tour – I think he saw the highlights of Goddard in 2 hours, which isn’t much time. With him was his wife, actress Clare Green, who, it turns out, is also into geeky things, and a few friends, Michael Dougherty, Tom Root, and Josh Troke, who are also writers and producers of awesome geek-interest things. (Michael Dougherty co-wrote the movies X-men 2 and Superman Returns, for starters.)

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Seth’s group came to where the cleanroom observation window is to see the James Webb Space Telescope hardware. Nearby we also have displays about Webb and its technology, and project engineer Ray Lundquist gave them an overview of what they were seeing. I got to chat with Clare for a bit, showing her the samples of sunshield material and segment of a special composite that is being used for some of the structures on Webb. I also happened to have a handful of our new James Webb Space Telescope-shaped “NASA bandz” on me, which I gave to Seth. After they were distributed, he asked my name and then introduced himself to me and shook my hand. I managed to say “nice to meet you,” rather than gush about what a big fan I was. Whew, Fangirl crisis was averted.

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Next, we all trooped down to the high bay to see the giant centrifuge, which brings me to the second big thing going on that day. Sure, our group of Webb folks were hanging out to see Seth Green – but we were also waiting to find out if they would be spinning the ISIM structure on the centrifuge. As it turned out, they were. The ISIM structure, a key piece of our hardware, will hold all of Webb’s science instruments. It had just been installed in the centrifuge, and they were ready for the first test spins.

Before that happened, we all were able to go into the centrifuge chamber to look around and take pictures. Sadly, after that, Seth and his group had to leave to see the next thing on the tour (which was a robotic arm, so don’t worry, he was seeing more cool stuff) – so he just missed seeing it spin.

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo

Here are a few pics of the ISIM structure, which is wrapped up, sitting on the centrifuge:

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Credit: Maggie Masetti

The Webb folks who had been along for Seth’s tour up until this point said goodbye to him and stayed by the centrifuge – and it wasn’t long before they shut the big doors, opened the little door, and started up the spinning. When the centrifuge moves slowly, like it was doing here, you can watch through the little door. When it really gets going, though, the whole room outside it is cleared. They have a control center they can use to monitor what’s happening inside the centrifuge.

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Our videographer, Mike McClare set up his high-def camera in the doorway:

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Credit: Maggie Masetti

Credit: Maggie Masetti

On this day, they were only doing a balance test, so it spun slowly, allowing us a good look.

I’ve been at Goddard for 14 years (plus a few months for an internship) and I’ve never seen it spin before, so it was genuinely exciting.

Without further ado, here’s a few videos.

This is a cell phone video that Mike took for me:

This is the video that came from his high-def camera that shows Seth Green’s visit to the centrifuge and then great shots of it spinning. At 22 seconds in, I’m telling Seth something (which was apparently cool) about them spinning the centrifuge.

Here are a few more shots of other cool stuff Seth and company saw at NASA Goddard:

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo