Day 2

After a quick staff meeting this morning, I researched the wave equation and its different forms in one, two, and three dimensions, and it's nature as a partial differential equation. We then discussed the topics which we had researched for homework with Dmitry, and he explained to us why it's important to cool the cameras we use for measurements (to about -50°C, -90°C if we could fund it). Because the detectors work by counting the number of electrons whose energy is pushed into the conduction band by incident beams of light, it is crucial to the data to know the number of electrons with as minimal error as possible. The temperature of a substance is representative of its kinetic energy, so at greater temperatures, the silicon has more energy to push the energy of so-called "dark electrons" into the conduction band, and therefore a fraction of the measurement may occur from within the material itself, independent from the light we are aiming to measure. These are called dark electrons because they appear in the measurement without any light being directed at the detector. This process, the creation of "dark current" does not occur at a fixed rate, it is random, and therefore we can only know the approximate rate to a range of +/-10%, as long as the temperature remains constant. If the temperature is constantly fluctuating, we will lose any sense of the rate at which dark current is being produced.

Dmitry gave me a copy of the lab's comprehensive report and research proposal to read today, through which I learned more about the history of the Kepler project, and the changes made when the reaction wheels malfunctioned as the telescope lost a fair amount of its ability to keep its aim steady. The project shifted its method from pointing at one point in the sky to shifting to different areas along the ecliptic every set of days. The loss of 2 of the 4 reaction wheels caused the view to drift about 3 milliarcseconds in a given timeframe, moving about one pixel every 6.5 hours. I also learned the background and basics of the project we will be working on, which involves measuring pixels' responses to different wavelengths of light to determine the extent to which light wavelength is a factor in the Pixel Response Function or PRF; as well as measuring and determining the IPRF, the Intrapixel Response Function, as a way to mitigate error in the Kepler Spacecraft's detectors.

Peter, Ashley, and I spent the rest of the afternoon in the lab, beginning to prep the cleanroom. The structural work has been, for the most part, set up by a previous group of interns, but six of the ceiling modules are missing, and the power distribution modules (PDMs) still need to be set up. We cleaned out some of the area and installed the master switch in the wall of the entry to the cleanroom, and then investigated where the PDMs needed to be installed, and came to the conclusion that we should mount them on the "roof" of the cleanroom. Additionally, we connected the REC cables to the PDMs; the REC cables provide power to the internal outlets within the cleanroom. The only things missing are the LPA cables, which provide power to the distribution modules.