Day 36, 4/30/09 -- I can has EBEX pls?

Now that the entire experiment is together and running off of one flight computer, there's been a bit of pushing and shoving for access to the gondola and flight computer. Some people want to debug code, others want to run detectors, others want to do scan tests, etc, so it's become a bit of a logistical hassle coordinating work. It hasn't been too bad yet, but we'll see how it goes in the future.

Last night, during the scan tests, Will and others added 200 lb of balancing weight to the cryostat to allow the elevation drive to work properly. Of course, this is 200 lb we can't really spare, so I'm trying to come up with a solution that will save us weight but still allow reliable elevation motion.

Other work that went on today: Some work on fixing some little electronics issues, Ilan cycled our fridges so our detectors are now cold, Hannes and François are working on tuning SQUIDs and detectors, Dan and Michele got a lot of work done on setting up the artificial planet, and Shaul and I are having lots of problems with mirror alignment.

CREST might launch tomorrow (sort of marginal conditions), but I'll be here early anyway to do more work on the mirror alignment with Shaul before he heads back to Minnesota.

Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico043009#