Progress Report March 20 - April 23, 1999

Accomplishments/Status

Summary: Good progress continues to be made on the instrument repackaging effort, particularly on the Spectrograph Bench Assembly, Pre-Slit Optics Assembly, and mechanism design in general. Cold testing of Portescap motors is in process. The decision on which motor type to use in GNIRS will be made in June. An internal Interim Design Review is scheduled for May 25 (IGPO personnel are welcome to attend). The Restart Review is still scheduled to be held July 20-21. Current updates on the GNIRS project are available on the NOAO/GNIRS web page <http://www.noao.edu/ets/gnirs>.

The OIWFS Bench Assembly design and layout is on hold until detail drawings on the Shack-Hartmann optics group and Detector Mount Assembly are received from IFA. Predicted weight for the Bench Assembly is approximately 121 lb. (55 kg)

Next Milestone: Restart Review (July 20-21).

Optics: A detailed revision of the GNIRS optical design with all changes is now in process. This activity will take into account the reordering of assemblies and the repackaging. No major changes to the design are contemplated.

Negotiations on the II-VI optics contract are still in process. Depending on the outcome of negotiations, current plans are to procure the Offner primary and secondary and collimator mirrors from II-VI and use a different technology for the 11 flats used in the repackaged design. The optics design for these mirrors will be updated prior to the Restart Review, after which the subject of which optics technology to use for the remaining flat mirrors will be revisited.

RMI has procured the material for the window and camera optics and fabrication will be authorized after the Restart Review. New drawings for these optics will be prepared concurrent with the design of the Camera Turret mechanism.

Mechanical Design: Preliminary mechanical design of the Slit/Decker/Filter Assembly is underway. This modular assembly will reside between the Pre-slit Optics Assembly and the Spectrograph Bench Assembly. The design of the Collimator Truss Assembly has also been started. Design of the Cross Dispersion Turret Assembly and Camera Turret Assembly have also been started. Each assembly is being designed for independent alignment before mating to the main Spectrograph Bench for final alignment.

A continuously updated drawing breakdown table, with weight budget, may be viewed on the web page at <http://www.noao.edu/ets/gnirs/Drawlist.htm>

Mechanical Fabrication: No fabrication except for component testing is planned until after the Restart Review. The Test Dewar, being provided by NOAO, is complete, and characterization testing is in process.

Cold motor qualification: One Portescap #P530 motor has been modified for cryo use, per the motor modification procedure provided by OSU, and tested in the NOAO CROC dewar. This motor failed cold testing below 100K. Modification of a second Portescap #P530 motor is underway and will be evaluated in the last week of April. The Phytron motor will be tested after it is received in May.

Electronics Design: The Instrument Cabling and Services diagram has been completed and is now installed on the web site at <ftp://ftp.noao.edu/gnirs/elect/5025.pdf>

Software Development: No activity.

Problems/Solutions:

See below.

Key Personnel:

The February report stated that there was no software programmer assigned to the GNIRS project, and that an individual experienced in EPICS needed to be identified and assigned to the project. NOAO is still working on a solution to this problem. Gemini has informally suggested that the code used in the IFA Imager might be used as a starting point for the GNIRS instrument as it does a similar job.

Ming Liang, Optical Engineer, has rejoined the project full time for approximately 2 months to handle GNIRS optical design details. No major changes to the optical design are contemplated.

Brooke Gregory, Staff Scientist, returned to Chile in Mid-April, and is scheduled to return to Tucson on May 9. While in Chile, he continues to work on GNIRS systems engineering tasks.

Andy Rudeen is working at the 20% level on the COB for Gemini effort. This is an approximate 6-month assignment, which has no detrimental effect on the GNIRS project.
 
 

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