Day 14, 4/8/09 -- the cooldown begins

Today we made the necessary preparations for cooling down the EBEX cryostat. We still had some concerns about the cryostat's pump-down rate, so we leak-checked again this morning and again found nothing untoward. It seems that our rental turbopump is just kind of slow.

Hannes spent the day installing SQUID controller boards onto the cryostat and installing all of the necessary cabling inside the RF-tight enclosure at the bottom of the cryostat. I attended our mission planning meeting with CSBF where we laid out our requirements and desires for the flight and worked on a model of the launch vehicle geometry so we can figure out how much height we have to play with.

At the end of the day, we started pre-cooling the cryostat, filling both the liquid nitrogen and liquid helium tanks with liquid nitrogen. This was uneventful, as planned, and the next day or so will be waiting for the relatively-isolated cold optics inside the cryostat to cool down.

Also, cowboy hats are awesome. I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy one tomorrow.

Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico040809#

Day 13, 4/7/09 -- tilting at wind turbines

After yesterday's long day of cryostat work, we decided to sleep in a bit. The day started off with excellent breakfast burritos that Jeff and I made at our house which included a beef chorizo made with awesome bits of the cow that you don't normally eat like salivary glands, lymph nodes, tripe, and cheek/tongue fat. Needless to say, it was delicious.

Today was mostly meetings for me. We rolled into the high bay at around noon, just in time for our weekly collaboration-wide conference call. Then, we had another conference call about gondola-specific issues, and then we had a meeting with the CSBF staff to work out some issues regarding the launch clearance of our payload to their launch vehicle and some other logistical stuff. We then switched the cryostat from its vacuum roughing pump to a turbomolecular pump so it would pump to a lower pressure.

On other fronts, Britt and Michele finished up the work on the flight computer crate and we should be ready to start scan tests tomorrow. Shaul instructed Joy and Daniel on positioning gondola housekeeping thermometers while Jerry worked on our flight batteries. I have no idea what Hannes, Ilan, or the McGilligans (Kevin and François) did today, but I'm sure it was important.

Milligan, Jeff, and I then took a little field trip out to the wind farm that we can see from the airport. Armed with Google maps and satellite imagery, we were determined to find our way along the dirt roads and get to the wind turbines. We found that Google maps is almost completely worthless for this sort of thing. Most likely their data is simply out-of-date, as many of the roads and intersections we were looking for simply didn't exist. Still, after about a half hour of taking turns that pointed us more-or-less in the direction of the wind farm, we got there.

Wow.

Wind turbines are awesome. First, they're enormous. They look big on the horizon, but they're even more imposing when you're standing at the base. Second, they produce a ridiculous amount of power. Turns out that the one turbine nearest the road had its door just...wide open. So, naturally, we went inside. We found a monitor that was displaying some GE turbine control software, and found that the keyboard tray was, not surprisingly given the state of the door, unlocked. So, naturally, I clicked around, and found a "General Data" menu item. Upon opening, I was rewarded with a display of some statistics about the turbine, like Power generated (1520 kW), coil voltage (~340V), current (1400A), etc. I decided not to play around with the control menus, figuring that it might actually be possible for me to break a multi-million-dollar wind turbine.

After we got back from our little field trip, Jeff and I leak-checked the cryostat. Because the pressure was still pretty high, we didn't have particularly good sensitivity, but we weren't able to find any leaks -- good news. We'll leak check again just tomorrow when the pressure is lower just to be sure.

To make this day even better, when we got home Jeff found cowboy hats in the closet in his room.

Pictures (mostly of wind turbines, because, let's face it, THEY ARE AWESOME):
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico040709#

Day 12, 4/6/09 -- the cryostat strikes back

Well, it was too good to be true. Work on the cryostat had been progressing fairly steadily and without too many mishaps. Today we had planned on closing the cryostat and starting to pump on it in preparation for cooling it. In the morning, we envisioned at about 10AM that it would take a few hours to get everything closed and we'd take an early night. I started writing this post at nearly 1AM and we're still here.

The first issue that came up was relatively simple. We had issues getting the instrument in properly due to some concentric baffling that has to nest together, but any angle between them screws the whole process up. Somehow, when we did this last time, it all just worked on the first try. This time, we had many fits and starts as the angles weren't quite right, so we had to tweak the angle with our Science Brick (a.k.a. a 26-lb tape-wrapped lead brick) and try multiple times.

Eventually we got it in...and we realized we had forgotten to plug in one of the housekeeping connectors, which required removing the instrument from the cryostat and plugging it in. After fixing that, Ilan checked wires and found that some of our fridge heater wires had opened up, meaning we wouldn't be able to cool our optics to 1K -- an unacceptable situation. So we spent the next 2 hours fixing wires.

Once we fixed all of the wiring issues, all that was left was to put the various shell lids on, seal the last o-ring lid, and pump, so we blasted some heavy metal in the high bay and got to work.

It's now 2:30 AM and we just started the vacuum pump. We pump through a restriction at first so as not to damage the delicate thermal filters via differential pressure, but eventually we will remove the restriction and let the cryostat pump directly into the pump so it will pump faster.

All in all, the problems we faced today weren't actually any worse than ones we've faced before -- it's just that much more frustrating when the end is in sight.

I'm not putting any pictures up in the post because I'm feeling a little lazy. You'll just have to click through to the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico040609#

Day 11, 4/5/09 -- shackle, shackle, shackle

Say it really fast -- it's fun, isn't it?

Weather today: Clear, chilly, and a bit windy. New Mexico is significantly colder than I thought it would be, in general.

After yesterday's debacle with the half-wave plate (HWP) anti-reflection coating (ARC), we tried to see if there was some way we could salvage the ARC on the side that had only begun to come up a little at the edge. We took some of the separated ARC and tried to tape it with various types of tape down to a disk of fused silica, but neither of them held when cooled to 77K. We made the decision to completely remove the ARC from the HWP, and after removing the residue left from the ARC, Jeff got the HWP mounted in the cryostat.

We also basically have completed the ≤ 1K portion of the instrument. Ilan has to run a few more tests on our thermometry, and we can then put it into the cryostat, close it up, and start pumping. Hopefully this will all happen fairly early tomorrow and we can have a nice, relaxed evening.

Michele and Britt got the flight computer crate up and running (yay!) and are working out whatever kinks they introduced by pulling it apart completely, redoing all the wiring, and putting it back together. Joy and Daniel got the secondary hexapod mounted on the gondola and made measurements of the primary hexapod geometry. Jerry, Joy, and Daniel started painting the gondola with emissive white paint -- and I have to say it looks pretty good. Daniel enjoyed the crane ride in his safety harness too.

We had a meeting today to discuss the state and plans for the next few days. It seems that everything is moving along well -- no major disasters or showstoppers in the works, as far as we can tell. Also at one point in the afternoon, Kevin, Hannes, Ilan, and I took a break to shoot some hoops on the very deformed basketball hoop outside the high bay. I beat Hannes at Pig, Hannes and I beat Kevin and Ilan in 2-on-2, and then we switched it up and Hannes and Ilan beat me and Kevin.

What I'm most excited about is now having SolidWorks installed on my laptop. This computer is so much faster than any of the other computers that we have running SolidWorks that it literally makes me giddy. I was just giggling to myself and marveling at how fast the gondola baffle assembly would update when I spun it around on the screen. Did I mention that I love technology?

Pictures plus bonus video:
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico040509#

Day 10, 4/4/09 -- the boss-man cometh

Today was clear and sunny, but VERY windy. It almost makes you wonder why they even try doing balloon launches from here.

Shaul, the project PI and my boss, arrived in Ft. Sumner today. The first order of business was to inspect the half-wave-plate's new anti-reflection coating (ARC) that I mentioned in the last entry. Even on initial inspection, it was clear that something wasn't quite right -- the ARC on one side was already starting to delaminate from the surface at some points around its edge. It was decided that we'd try cycling the half-wave-plate to liquid nitrogen temperature (77K) and observe what happens. During this process, the side that was already delaminating came off completely, and the other side started to peel up at the edge. It's unclear what our next steps are, but we have some tests we'll do tomorrow that will hopefully illuminate our path forward.

Hannes spent all of today wrestling with detector wires. We decided that it would make his life easier if we made some modifications to one of the parts in the wiring RF-protection assembly, so I took the part to the milling machine in the hangar machine shop and proceeded to make some very ugly but functional cuts to the part. It was a challenge to use a machine without digital readouts on the axes, but I think I was able to pull it off. After these modifications were made, Hannes was eventually able to get the RF-protection assembly in place.

Britt and Michele continued work on the flight computer crate while Kevin and François worked more on detector readout electronics. Ilan tested some of the cryostat's low-temperature thermometry readout electronics, and Jerry, Daniel, and Joy started to put on the star camera baffle but had to stop when I reminded them that it needed to be painted before installation. Later in the day, I showed Daniel and Joy how to use our Microscribe Coordinate-measuring arm and they used it to measure the hexapod geometry (as well as their faces and hands).

In other news, I talked to some of the Berkeley group working on NCT in the hangar. Seems like a cool bunch -- not surprising, given that they're from Berkeley (go Bears). The FIREBall team has set up a cleanroom/darkroom in their area of the high bay -- their near-UV detector is sensitive to NUV emission from the high bay lights, so they had to cover their portable cleanroom with tarps that they conveniently used in shipping their experiment.

Sign #4 that you know you're working too much: You go to find Hugo, the CSBF engineer only to find an empty room with none of the CSBF people around, and only then do you realize that it's Saturday.

And then you wonder why they're not there.

Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico040409#

Bag o' spheres

We now have a series of tubes connecting our little house to the rest of the prairie, not to mention the big city.

I love technology.

Day 9, 4/3/09 -- on the road again

Today started off well-enough. The weather is getting better and better -- today we had about 75ish degrees, clear skies, and moderate wind. And, our liquid helium arrived from Waxahachie, TX (the home of what was to be the Superconducting SuperCollider). 1000L of liquid helium, and only a little bit of waiting.

Then, I got a call from UPS. Cardiff sent our half-wave-plate via international priority shipping to Albuquerque. We had intended for them to ship it via FedEx to a FedEx sorting/distribution facility; the plan was that either Shaul would pick it up on Saturday before driving to Ft. Sumner, or if we needed it sooner, I would drive out to Albuquerque on Friday to pick it up. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong.

The half-wave-plate was shipped via UPS international. No problem, right? Wrong. The address on the package was the FedEx sorting facility. UPS tried to deliver it to FedEx, and I'd imagine much hilarity ensued, culminating with FedEx basically saying "Uh, we don't want it". Hence the call I received from UPS -- the package was on the driver's truck, and would be available to pick up at UPS between 6-8 PM.

So it turns out that Jeff didn't need the half-wave-plate until Saturday anyway, so we figured Shaul could just pick it up before driving to Ft. Sumner. No problem, right? Wrong. Unlike FedEx, the UPS distribution center is closed on the weekend. If we didn't pick it up today, between 6-8 PM, the next chance would be Monday -- an unacceptable delay. So...I had to drive out to Albuquerque to pick it up. If you look up "snafu" in the dictionary, I'm pretty sure you'll get a story very similar to the one above.

In between talking to UPS and getting in my car, I worked on getting the window closed (not done yet) and helping Jeff with a part for his shaft assembly. Jeff continued working on the shaft installation; after I left he and Milligan worked on the computer control of all his various motors in the half-wave-plate assembly. Hannes struggled with getting 1o lbs of crap into a 5 lb bucket (i.e. connecting 7 connectors in a space that comfortably fits maybe 4 and then closing it all up in an RF-tight way). I honestly have no idea what happened with the gondola/ACS crew.

Of course, because it was Friday, we went to the hamburger stand -- I got the catfish. It was quite good, though I have to say I like the shrimp better. In Albuquerque I called my friend Chris in Minnesota to give me a recommendation for a pizza place -- as there is no pizza in Ft. Sumner, I figured it was something that would be appreciated by people here. After some consulation with Yelp, he pointed me to Giovanni's, which was indeed an excellent pizza, and I brought most of it back with me to share with the meat-eating part of the crew.

Not too many pictures today -- not surprising since I spent about 6 hours of today on the road (including missing the turn-off for Hwy. 84 in Santa Rosa while talking to my mom on my cell phone).
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico040309#

Day 8, 4/2/09 -- work. What else?

Today we had the best weather yet -- about 65, perfectly clear and sunny with only a moderate breeze. For much of the afternoon we worked with the high-bay door open. Hannes continued getting the focal plane together, Jeff mostly worked on his shaft assembly, and I worked on the optics stack. Kevin and François continued work on detector readout electronics, while Britt and Michele's assault on the flight computer is hitting the home stretch. Jerry, Joy, and Daniel mounted the star camera on the gondola.

Because the weather was so nice, I decided to go for a little bike ride. I started off in one direction but was thwarted by a dirt road (I have a Fuji road bike with skinny tires). I then headed into town, intending to go past and see what lies west of the town, but once I got to the main intersection I noticed the telltale sounds of a flat tire. I knew it wasn't going to hold air for any length of time, so I ended up walking the ~3 miles back to the high bay.

After my failed bike ride, I pulled a major boneheaded move. I accidentally put a hole in one of our extremely thin (4-micron polypropylene) so-called 'thermal' quasioptical filters. The hole is small, and it's located in a place we can work around (hopefully), but I felt like a total idiot.

We also found out today that, besides having an unnatural fondness for goats, Jeff also hates The Police (the band, not the law enforcement agencies). Therefore, his opinion on music no longer holds any weight with me.

I noticed that a couple of vending machines have found their way around the site -- one in our high bay and one in the hangar. This is notable for two reasons: 1, they will apparently have Pepsi. I love Pepsi, and it seems Pepsi is sold nearly exclusively in this town (er, village) which pleases me greatly. 2, next to the one in the hangar, I spotted a grill. I may never get any work done again.

Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXinNewMexico040209#

Day 7, 4/1/09 -- Just talkin' 'bout shaft.

Damn right.

Today was Ilan, François, and Kevin's first day in Fort Sumner. They all got right to work on cryostat housekeeping and detector readout electronics. Jeff started with the assembly of the half-wave-plate driveshaft assembly, a slightly convoluted piece of hardware that allows a motor from outside the cryostat at 300K in the ambient environment to turn the half-wave-plate at 4K in vacuum. It's a tricky bit of 'kit' (as Will might say), with multiple bearings, flexible couplings, low-thermal-conductivity shafts, etc.

Before Ilan left Minnesota, he had sent a shipment via FedEx Freight with some additional hardware that we needed to close up the cryostat. Unfortunately, since Fort Sumner is a small town (in fact, a 'village', as Daniel likes to point out), FedEx decided that they didn't want to drive a truck from Roswell (yes, THAT Roswell) 80-some-odd-miles north to us just to deliver our shipment. They were planning on gathering up a few more shipments and driving it up tomorrow. I told Jeff we wanted our stuff ASAP, so he and Daniel drove the hour and a half to the FedEx facility to pick up the shipment.

Around the same time, Jerry drove out to Albuquerque to pick up Hannes, who got in around 6PM. Once they returned, they got right back to work -- Jerry on the star camera, and Hannes on the focal plane array of detectors that he brought with him in his luggage. I started putting the final bits on the optics stack assembly -- I ended up having to sand smooth an o-ring mating surface that had been scratched up inadvertently as well as make an o-ring to replace one that had been forgotten in MN.

On the base, the final experiment arrived. Called NCT, they're in an older high bay in the hangar building. It's much much crappier than the one we're in. And the Columbia crew got in a new set of computers that will be used for flight operations -- two computers with three 22" widescreen monitors between them (two on one, one on the other).

The new guys went to the burger stand for lunch and had what they claim were completely flavorless burritos. They were happier with Fred's in the evening.

Day 6, 3/31/09 -- If I see a "goat for sale" sign...

Jeff is, for some reason, obsessed with goats. He would like to own one and milk it. I just smile and nod.

The high bay is getting more crowded. On Monday, more of the CSBF crew arrived from Palestine, TX, and now they've started setting up in a heretofore unused corner of the high bay. In addition, three more EBEX team members arrived late tonight from Minneapolis and Montreal.

Today in the high bay was fairly relaxed. Jeff did some work on the half-wave plate stuff and fixing some threaded holes in some hexapod parts. Britt and Michele continued their heroic efforts flight-readying the flight computer crate while Daniel and Joy routed cables around the gondola. At the end of the day, we mounted the hexapod for the primary mirror onto the inner frame along with some extra weight to simulate the mirror. Maybe tomorrow, the secondary hexapod will go on?

In other news, I received a snazzy lens for the Fuji S3 Pro digital SLR that I'm borrowing from my little brother. On loan from my mom, this 70-200mm f/2.8 ED VR lens is AMAZING. I can't wait to try some night sky shots with it. Using a camera and lens like this makes me REALLY want a DSLR. Unfortunately, the lens alone is $1700. Ouch.

Our phone line in the high bay was installed today as well -- about an hour too late for our two conference calls. It will definitely beat having to huddle around a cell phone on speaker for conference calls in the future.

The best part about today, apart from the awesome lens arriving, was that Milligan, Jeff, and I moved into our new digs on Real Wind Drive in Old Fort Sumner. Not only that, we held a little dinner party to inaugurate -- I grilled up some steaks topped with crumbled blue cheese, Jeff made some delicious potatoes, and Michele made a great tomato and mushroom sauce to go with some not-so-great store-bought pasta. Regardless, it was the best dinner I've had yet here in Fort Sumner. I think I'm going to like living in a house rather than a motel. We might even have internets by the end of the week.

We have a couple more leads on non-motel housing as well. It turns out that if you need anything, the person to talk to is Dorothy Moyer who works here at the airport. Within a day of Britt telling her that we were looking, she came with two or three contacts who had places available. The plan is to have everyone who's more-or-less here for the duration of the campaign in real housing, while those who are here on a shorter-term basis can make do at the Super 8.

Bonus video in the picture album today!
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico033109#