Friday, November 16, 2012

Day 23, November 16, 2012 -- Chillin' with Helium

Big news today: We cooled the cryostat with liquid helium! This is a big milestone for us, because we have verified not only that all of our flight-critical fridge wiring is still working, but that our half-wave plate (which sits on a superconducting bearing) levitates and rotates! The next couple of days will have a fair number of helium fills before the boiloff settles down, so the cryostat crew will be intermittently busy with that.

Elsewhere in the high bay today, progress was made with silver teflon application, baffle mylarizing, battery mounting, and communications with the CSBF SIP hardware.

Pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104253244018605213307/EBEXInAntarctica20121116

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.