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| The Antarctic Chronicles |
| Antarctic Panorama | Mt. Erebus |
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February 13, 2000 Tapes Recovered! |
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Today the weather over the area where the payload has touched down was
finally clewar from clouds, and we were able to land with a
Twin Otter near the telescope.
The gondola was still standing upright in perfect conditions. We could
recover the pressure vessel containing the tape driver and the data tapes,
another pressure vessel with some electronics, and a few more sparse small
items. Steven (NSBF), recovered the Support Instrument Package and some
other items related to the flight train. We had to leave the gondola frame
and the telescope itself on the ice, because they are too big and heavy
to be put inside the Twin Otter. Before leaving we wrapped a thick tarp
around the telescope tube to provide some protection for the winter. We spent about two hours on the landing site. Pietro is leaving Antarctica on February 16. We will recover the rest of the instrument probably next October.
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February 11, 2000 Waiting for the recovery |
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We still haven't been able to reach the payload landing site, yet!
We made an attempt on February 5 but it was impossible to see how the snow
surface was looking like, because of the thick cloud cover above the landing
site. We had to turn around and head back to McMurdo without being able to
land. Since then the weather has been bad over the Ross ice Shelf. We will have air support until February 15th. After that date we will be forced to leave Antarctica without the data tapes! But we still have a few days, and there is still hope for an opening in the cloud cover, so that we will be able to land next to the telescope and retrieve the tapes.
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January 27th, 2000 Mission terminated! |
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This morning at about 5 am local time (13 hours ahead to UT) we regained
line of sight contact with the payload. The full telemetry revealed that
all the systems were working nominally. We were able to turn on the live
video camera on board and we could check that the telescope was properly
pointing at the last selected target (active region 8844). After considering many factors like airplane availability, balloon trajectory, and weather conditions we decided to terminate the flight today. At 3:30pm LT (02:30 UT) we commanded the main computer to interrupt the observations and to stow the telescope, immediately thereafter we commanded the master power to be switched off. At 4pm Steven Peterzen (NSBF), Ty Sigler (NSBF), and Pietro Bernasconi, jumped on a Hercules C130 and headed towards the balloon that at that moment was flying over the Ross Ice Shelf about 230 miles (360 Km) Sout/East from McMurdo and at an altitude of about 124500 ft (37500 m). Approximately one hour later we were flying underneath the balloon that was clearly visible high in the sky above us. Before termination, we flew around for thirty minutes to inspect the snow surface conditions where the telescope was expected to land. At 4:35 pm (03:35 UT) Steven communicated via radio to the NSBF crew left at Willy Field giving them the go for the flight termination. A command was transmitted to the payload to fire the explosive bolts that will cause the detachment of the balloon from the flight train. The gondola fell free for several thousand of feet, before the air density was thick enough to inflate the parachute. The deceleration was very sharp and at this point the payload experienced a pull of about 10 G. Flying in circles we followed the slow descent of the payload for about 30 minutes. We could see the telescope swinging back and forth with angles as high as 35/40 degrees. At about 5:15 pm (04:15 UT) the payload gently touched down on the snow surface. Steven ordered Ty to send the command to detach the parachute from the payload, It slowly deflated and gently landed next to the gondola . The landing was perfect, we noticed that the payload didn't tip over and crash on the hard snow surface! It was standing upright as it was standing on the barn deck a few weeks ago! From the airplane we could tell that the payload was in excellent conditions: the NSBF solar panels were crushed, since they were sticking a little under the gondola frame, but the Flare Genesis solar panels were in pristine conditions, they never touched the ground! After several passes close to the landing site at low altitude to inspect the gondola conditions and the snow surface around it, we left heading towards Siple Dome to get some equipment to be transported back to McMurdo. At the beginning of the next week we will reach the gondola with a small airplan e (a Twin Otter) to recover the tapes, the SIP, the solar panels and other miscellaneous small components. At this point is unsure wheter we will be able to recover the gondola and the telescope this season, or we will have to leave it on the ice for the winter and recover it next October or November. The second alternative seems to be the most likely.
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January 25th, 2000 Heading towards the end of the mission |
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Communications with the payload are more reliable now. All the systems on
board are working nominally.
On January 24 at 22:00 UT we will change the target from active region 8831
to a small, growing region that on January 23 crossed the central meridian
at about +6 degrees latitude North. No AR number has been assigned to that
region yet. The new Flare Genesis target coordinates are: N6 W5 referring
to January 23 at 19:05 UT. Sometimes on January 26th we expect to regain Line of Sight contact with the payload, and about 24 to 30 hours later the flight will be terminated.
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January 24th, 2000 Flare Genesis is working again! |
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On January 22 at 00:15 UT, we finally succeded to establish an uplink with
the payload. We sent a reboot command to the main computer, and it restarted
properly. Immediately thereafter we send two more commands to update the
target coordinates, which were several days old. At 03:00 UT the observations
were resumed and the new target is region 8831, coordinates S18 deg. E12 deg.
referring to January 18 at 03:01 UT. n January 22 at about 23:00 UT we lost again the uplink communication. Probably in two days the balloon will be back again in line of sight, and we will regain our full communication capability until flight termination, which will probably be 24 to 30 hours later. Up to now(January 24 01:20 UT) all the systems have been working nominally.
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January 21th, 2000 Still offline! |
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The main computer has not resumed the observations yet. A reboot command
from the ground is needed, but
all attempts to send commands to the payload during the last two days have
failed. One of the reasons for that is the too high latitude at which the
balloon is currently flying (>79 degrees S). At those latitudes INMARSAT is
almost behind the horizon, therefore communications between satellite and
balloon are very difficult. Another problem is that the HF frequencies are
too noisy and the commands sed via this channel are not properly
received by the payload.
The option to fly with an airplane underneath the balloon in order to regain
Line of Sight communication has been considered. No decision in that regard has
been made yet.
With the exception of the lack off communication and the main FGE computer
waiting for a reset, all the systems onboard seem to be in good health.
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January 19th, 2000 Some good days of observations, and then a lot of troubles |
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From January 16th until January 18th at 06:00 UT the Flare Genesis telescope
carried on its observations of the active region 8824 withought a glitch.
On January 17 INMARSAT was available again for about 24 hours. On January 18 at about 06:00 UT a VME-bus reset caused both on board computers to reboot. The command interpreter computer, responsible to interface the main compuetr with all the payload subsystems, restarted normally. The main compuetr instead didn't restart, failing to command the command interpreter compuer to turn on the pointing. For about 13 hours (until 19:00 UT of the same day) the gondola drifted without pointing at the Sun. Finally Pietro was able to first send a command to turn on the pointng and then to restart the main compuetr. The Sun was aquired again, and observations of the active region 8824 were resumed at about 20:00 UT. At about 00:00 UT on January 19 INMARSAT telemetry and commanding capability was lost again. Since then all attempts to send commands to the gondola through INMARSAT, as well as through HF failed. We still have telemetry via ARGOS about once every hour. Since we are not able to communicate with the payload, we could't send the commands needed to switch the observing target to the active region 8831 at 07:15 UT as it was planned. The telescope is still pointing at AR 8824. At about 09:30 UT January 19 the main computer stopped again. Since so far we are incapable to communicate with the payload, we cannot send a command to manually restart the main computer. Two days ago we crossed the half way line, and we expect that the flight will last for another 6-7 days. We are confident that soon we will be able to resume the observations, leaving us at least 5 more days worth of observations.
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January 16th, 2000 Another problem with the main computer |
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The FGE telescope is currently observing the active region 8824 located at
about 12 degrees S in latitude. At around 1100 UT on January 15 the main computer stopped again. Pietro was able to send a reboot command at 2030 UT of the same day, and the main computer resumed the observations about 10 minutes later. Since January 16 0000 UT the balloon has entered in another occlusion zone for INMARSAT, with the consequence that all communications to and from the payload have been drastically reduced. It is not known yet when INMARSAT will be available again.
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January 14th, 2000 A quiet day |
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The FGE telescope is in an excellent health. All the systems are working
nominally. Today the observation program has been switched to H-alpha
observations in a filament that at 03:00 UT of January 14 is located at
S13 deg, W26.2 deg. FGE will aquire 1 measurement in the red and blue wing
of H-alpha and one vectormagnetogram at 6122A every 10 minutes. This program
will continue until 08:15 UT. After that the telescope will point at the
active region AR8824 and resume the vectormagnetogram program.
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January 13th, 2000 Main on board computer hung for several hours |
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Between January 12 09:00 UT and January 13 04:00 UT the telescope stopped
its observing program. The main computer hung up for reasons
not weel understood yet. For the entire morning and until mid afternoon local
time, Pietro attempted without success to send a command to reboot the computer.
The balloon was in an occlusion zone where it was impossible to send
commands using INMARSAT. The only other mean to communicate with the payload
was to use the High Frequency antenna, which uses ionosferic reflection, but
no signal went through. At about 5 pm local time (04:00 UT) it was finally
possible to send again commands through INMARSAT. Pietro succeded to send a
reeboot command and the hung computer restarted without problems and resumed the
observations of the active region AR8821. Today, Dave Rust and Harry Eaton left Antarctica to return to Maryland (USA). Pietro Bernasconi remains in Antarctica to survey the telescope operation and to recover the telescope at the end of its flight.
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January 12th, 2000 The first two days of flight |
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Since the successfull launch on January 10 at 0314 UT (4:14 pm local
time at McMurdo Station, Antarctica), all the systems have been operating
normally. Although, we had a few hair-raising hours just after reaching float
altitude when it seemed that an electronic component of the pointing system
had failed due to the cold. During the ascent the payload goes through the
tropopause where it is subjected to very cold temperatures, down to -50 degrees
celsius. The problem was instead caused by a software error that was fixed by
power cycling the entire payload (turn off the power and switch it on again).
Now we are especially happy about the performance of the pointing system,
which is holding the telescope firmly on its targets despite the fact that it
is bucking a 20 knots wind. We lost the line of sight contact with the payload at 4:05 pm local time on January 11 (03:05 UT), 23 hours after launch. Since then we rely on satellite link through INMARSAT and ARGOS, which is very sporadic at high latitudes. Telemetry and commanding are very limited now, and the telescope operates in a fully autonomous mode. It is possible though to update or change our targets on the Sun, as well as the observing program. During the line of sight period we have recieved hundreds of images by telemetry, Now the images are written on tapes carried with the telescope. These tapes will have to be recovered for the mission to be a complete success. The initial data are extremely exciting and the mission is a complete success so far. We are especially grateful to the NSBF launch crew and to our many scientific colleagues who have undertaken collaborative observations and have emailed their support and encouragement. The balloon is expected to circle the globe in 10-20 days. After this period it will be, hopefully, above the McMurdo area again and the telescope and its precious tapes will be retrieved by letting the payload gently drop from its float altitude of 120'000 with a parachute.
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January 10th, 2000 We have a lift off!! |
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The Flare Genesis Experiment was successfully launched January 10 at
0314 UT. All systems are operating normally. It will reach float
altitude about 0500 UT and initial observations of AR 8821, which was at
N27 E47 at 0831 UT on January 9, will begin at approximately 0700 UT and
continue until 0314 UT on January 13.
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January 8th, 2000 Launch missed by not much! |
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The Flare Genesis Experiment almost got launched yesterday, but the
winds returned just as we were starting for the launch pad. Current
conditions are 20 knot winds with some snow. The forecast is for more
of the same tomorrow. First possible launch date is Monday, January 10.
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January 3rd, 2000 Flight ready and waiting ... |
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Today, we mounted the solar panels, put on the last of the the
rmal
blankets, and rechecked readiness
for a launch. We checked payload
weight with the NSBF equipment mounted. Dave won a slice of pizza for
making the closest guess to the actual weight: 3560 pounds. The skies
were sunny for about two hours and we confirmed that we can point well
and run with the solar panels and everything else in flight
configuration. Pietro took a moment to admire the telescope. Then the winds returned.
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January 2nd, 2000 Happy New Year (We will be launching soon!) |
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The weather at McMurdo on Christmas was wonderful and yesterday was
pretty
good, too. Sunday, the balloon experimenters and the NSBF
crew had a big dinner prepared out here at Willy field with lots of
appetizers, ham, veggies, home made pie, cheesecake, etc. Robyn Millan and Damien Chua of the
MAXIS experiment team; and Harry and Pietro did much of the cooking. Afterw
ard we relaxed in the sun outside, enjoyi
ng the newest issue of the
Antarctic Sun. Tough
life here in Antarctica. But the news from the stratosphere is not good. We are watching a pattern unlike any seen before in this hemisphere. The polar vortex has wandered back and forth from Marie Byrd Land to Roosevelt Island with no determined motion toward the south. There is some concern that the vorex will never reach the pole. A stable high pressure area at the 10 mb level on the opposite side of the continent seems to be holding it off. Stay tuned.
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December 25th, 1999 Merry Christmas! |
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The skies cleared to a pristine blue everywhere for Christmas Day at
Willy Field. We are planning more rehearsals of the observing sequences
and another test of pointing precision. The problem with the tape drive
seems to have been resolved by switching to another drive. It has
passed all tests in for a 24 h period. There has been a significant change in the stratospheric anticyclone in the 5 - 3 mb range over the past 24 hours. The center of the system is now again moving south. Steven Peterzen, leader of the NSBF group in McMurdo, anticipates 2 - 3 days for the center to be in position to support a circumpolar flight. If the local weather conditions allow, a launch on Monday/Tuesday is feasible.
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December 22nd, 1999 Good Bye Brigitte! |
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While waiting for the surface weather and stratospheric weather to
cooperate, Pietro and Harry sealed up and pressure tested the tapedrive
enclosure and the optics enclosure. A problem is that the Exabyte
tapedrive is now responding irratically and we had to reopen the
enclosure. Before launch, we will have to correct the problem and renew
the seal. We must also test the optical path once again in sunlight, in
case the pressurization of the optics enclosure changed something. Pietro and our team from NSBF, Frank Candelaria, Otto Masters, Mike Mayfield, Brian Stilwell, Bill Stracner and David Sullivan, hooked up the SIP (balloon control, telemetry and data logging package) to our gondola. The remaining tasks are relat ively minor: pressure testing the batteries, testing SIP-FGE connections and cabling, mounting and testing the solar panels. After helping us greatly to develop solar target selection techniques, Brigitte had to leave for the city of lights. Before she left, we got one last shot with us all together.
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December 19th, 1999 Stratospheric Winds |
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The stratospheric wind pattern hasn't moved in
five days, so if we launched today the balloon would just head for the
pole and cross the continent and then go out to sea. A pathfinder
balloon will go up possibly on Wednesday, December 22,but we won't know how
it is doing until Thursday, so that is the earliest possible launch date.
Meanwhile Pietro pushes
the telescope out each morning for another day of tests in our magnificent sunlight. Yesterday Brigitte again practiced target selection and we ran on the sun all day using all the programs that will be executed in flight. Dave, Pietro and Brigitte took a break from the
computer screens for a conference on the veranda of the telescope
barn.
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December 17th, 1999 Silver Epoxy in a Hurry |
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The pathfinder balloon is headed straight for the South Pole.
Obviously, the stratospheric winds are not ready for our circumpolar
flight. The upper atmosphere vortex stalled for two days over Marie
Byrd Land. The earliest it could be in place now is December 20. The earliest
possible launch opportunity in that case would be December 21.
Meanwhile we have been taking advantage of sunny days to make
magnetograms and H-alpha pictures and to rehearse the launch sequence
and flight programs. Nick completed routines to display compressed
data. Pietro completed the flare build-up and filament/sigmoid program command sequences. Harry performed the final checkout of the on-board
computers and guiding electronics before sealing them in the pressure
vessels. He installed the backup Fabry-Perot etalon, and it is
performing well, but we will go ahead and repair the solder on the original flight FP for backup. Many thanks to our friends at
CSIRO in
Sydney, Australia, especially Chris Freund, who shipped us the needed
silver epoxy on a moment's notice.
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December 14th, 1999 Pathfinder Balloon Launched |
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Snow flurries, winds, cold and low clouds kept us in the barn for the
past two days but today is sunny and calm again. The NSBF folks took
advantage of the improved conditions to launch a pathfinder balloon that
will sample the stratospheric winds. The latest wind maps show a vortex
moving toward the pole, so prospects for the launch window opening in the next few days are excellent. Meanwhile, Pietro is writing the
rather lengthy command sequences that will be needed to carry out the
flare build-up and filament/sigmoid programs (see Scientific
Objectives). Harry calibrated the radio link modulation amplitude,
buttened up the pointer telescope, and tested the flight batteries. Dave and Brigitte and Hugh Hudson (in Japan) have been selecting
targets. We selected a region in the north, and it had a flare!
Today, we plan to recalibrate the filters and again rehearse procedures
for pointing at solar target regions. The sun is quiet today but a new
active region is coming over the east limb and it will be ideally positioned in 4 - 5 days from now, which is our current best estimate of
the launch date.
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December 11th, 1999 The Sun is Up! |
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The weather in McMurdo has been great. The skies have cleared
the past few days which has allowed
extended testing of all systems.
Pietro and Harry worked until 3 AM in order to take full advantage of the
opportunity. The ACE and pointing operated continuously for a period of
over three hours. Brigitte selected solar targets for study, were the
launch to take place within 24 hours, and Harry and Pietro fine-tuned the
pointing system. In the meantime, Dave and Nick worked on checking the performance of the backup Fabry-Perot etalon, since fixing the connector on the flight etalon seems to become less likely. The group hopes to inst all the backup etalon tomorrow and install the thermal insulation on the etalon housing.
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Friday, December 10th 1999 Solar Targeting, Filter Testing and Loose Connectors |
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Today we took advantage of full the continuous sunlight to recheck the
passbands of the Fabry Perot filter and the two back-up FPs. We also
successfully practiced pointing at sunspots, of which are plentiful just
now. We practiced target evaluation and selection, using the many
resources placed on the web by other solar observatories. We spent a
lot of time running down a loose connection in the pointing servo. The
upper stratospheric vortex is still off the Antactic coast, but it will
likely be in position by December 15. We will probably not launch then,
as we had hoped to, but the delay should not be more than a few days.
Next task is to verify the response of the polarization modulators.
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Friday, December 8th 1999 The Pointing Parameters |
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Today is sunny and optical alignment is nearly complete! We verified
that the sun center find program is working. Then we entered the
coordinates for those nice sunspots near disk center, expecting to point
right to them. But we forgot that the telescope hasn't been pointed at
spots since it left the northern hemisphere. We missed the spots
because things are upside down and backwards here. North is down, not
up, and as seen from the telescope, East is on the right, not on the
left. But after we made the sign changes, the telescope locked right in
on the spots. We got the first live video images of spots since arrival
here. Launch is still planned for December 15, but it could be delayed by the failure of the polar vortical winds to develop by then. It could also be delayed by unfavorable surface weather conditions. Also by too many cloudy days between now and then. We need to complete the calibrations and flight dry-runs. Activities in the next few days: further testing of the Fabry-Perot filter, which seems to have developed an open circuit. Cloudy day activity: attach the balloon control package and test the interfaces to our experiment.
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Monday, December 6th 1999 Test Flight |
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The principal achievement today was the flight test in a C-130
above McMurdo of radio communications between our equipment on the
airplane and the gondola on the ground. We installed an antenna in the
sextant port and successfully received signals from the gondola.
Unfortunately, we could not check the link through the NSBF equipment,
because it wasn't working during the flight. Later tests on the ground
were successful, however. Clutter was removed from the FGE web pages and new links were established to the Max Millennium campaign pages. We also refined the observing plans. |
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Saturday, December 4th 1999 Optical Alignment and Hardware Tweaks |
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Optical alignment work has been progressing as well as can be expected in the absence of sunlight. With a laser and a
theotarted when the radio comm system was turned
off for other tests. This bug has been fixed and the on-board computers are running reliably.
We tested the LOS and OTH comm systems linking our GSE to the NSBF transmitters to the payload. These comms are working normally. We still have to test communications from our system through the NSBF system during an underflight. The flight test is scheduled for next week, depending on aircraft availability. We will also test direct reception of signals from the payload through a helical antenna to be installed in the C-130's sextant port. There will be an underflight during the mission only if needed to correct a serious problem that cannot be addressed with the limited OTH comm system. All other systems have been checked and are working normally. The principal tasks remaining are final optical alignment, underflight checkout, installation and checkout of the NSBF SIP with our payload, and final observing program specification. |
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Tuesday, November 30th 1999 (Williams Field) Project PI Arrives, We Hope the Sun Shines Soon |
| Yesterday at three am, David Rust, Principal Investigator arrived in McMurdo station. Since Thanksgiving, the FGE team has been waiting for sunlight with which to finish aligning the post-focus optics as well as calibrate the filters. During the wait, the liquid crystal modulators were installed, four damaged temperature sensors were repaired, and finally the science instrument package (SIP) was integrated and tested. |
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Saturday, November 27th 1999 (Williams Field) Filter Calibration Begins, Telescope is Online! |
| The FGE team has had a fruitful week past week. On Monday and Tuesday the alignment of the post focus optics, mounting of the heat shields and installation of the pointing telescope was completed. The spectrograph and heliostat were set up for the calibration of the narrow band filters and the Fabry-Perot etalon. The momentum transfer unit was cleaned and reassembled. Optics were installed in the Optical Pressure Vessel (OPV) and on the optical table of the pointing telescope. The ACE Pressure Vessel (APV) was sealed and installed, as well as all computers on the mezzanine, all cables were connected. The instrument was powered on November 26th for the first time in several months. Performance check ongoing. |
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Monday, November 22nd 1999 (Williams Field) Calibration Complete, OPV Alignment Begins |
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Pietro, the resident optics expert, has completed the alignment of our secondary mirror. To enable this task, the carpenters built a sturdy platform made of wooden I-Beams. The platform was suspended by two four by four beams which were cushioned by foam padding to provide stability. Stability is fundamentally important -- the secondary was aligned within micrometers of specification. In order to perform the alignment, the telescope was used as an interferometer. One can see the laser and beam splitter here. One beam path went through the optics, bounced off the flat mirror at the end, and came back. The other beam path simply reflected off the flat mirror on the optics table, and bounced back. Both paths end up in the Theodolite, which projects an image of the interference between the two beams into the Black Box. The Black Box had a camera inside which was hooked up to a TV screen next to the secondary. Ultimately, Pietro was responsible for tweaking the secondary until the interferogram looked good. Please look at some more pictures of the alignment process. |
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Tuesday, November 15th 1999 (Williams Field) Calibration starting any day now |
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Over the course of the past four days, the FGE team managed to mount the OPV, set up the racks, as well as mount the telescope tube. As most of the optics were mounted, FGE aligned the optical axis. With the successful completion of this first alignment, work began on establishing the interferometer. The small mirror was set to an orthogonal position to the optical axis. The team is waiting for our tertiary mirror to arrive from Christchurch, which will allow us to fully calibrate the instrument. |
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Thursday, November 11th 1999 (Williams Field) Our first day of work. |
| Several weeks late, we received our telescope and optics. The telescope was in a big box which filled with sea water, and so we spent several hours cleaning. Harry disassembled and cleaned the Image Motion Compensator (with some help from Nick.) Jeff removed rust from several bolts and cleaned some of the optics to the OPV. Pietro worked on cleaning the cylinder. When finished with the cleaning, work began on mounting the primary mirror. At the end of the day, we had managed to mount the primary mirror, and clean several of our key components. |
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Tuesday, November 9th 1999 (McMurdo Base) Jeff and Harry arrive in Antarctica |
| Jeff, Harry and presumably our cargo have arrived in McMurdo. We hope that today's Herc' flight has our optics so that we can begin our calibrations. |
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Wednesday, November 3rd 1999 (Williams Field) The alignment platform is completed! |
| Today the carpenter finished build the wooden platform that Pietro will use to align the telescope's main optics. The alignment is a very delicate procedure that uses an interferometer sensitive to micrometric displacements of the optical elements. The slightest vibration or motion of the interferometer or the optics will render vain any attempt to succeed in the task. Therefore, a solid platform was built to prevent unwanted displacements. To reduce the vibrations a series of foam pads was put between the platform and the floor of the barn. To check the solidity of the platform Pietro set the theodolite on the platform and pointed at a distant target, while Nick was wandering and jumping around the platform. The result was positive, since no motion or vibration was observed! Here's what it looked like at the end of the day. |
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Monday, November 1st 1999 (Williams Field) Good God, this is an awful place (Scott) |
| Today the weather started off bad, and got worst (compare to a week ago.) Naturally, flight operations were canceled again. In fact, tonight we are sleeping at Williams Field due to bad weather. However, that doesn't stop us from capturing a beautiful moment. According to our weather station, the temperature over the past 8 hours has hovered around -40F (wind chill) with winds peaking at 57 MPH, and not dropping below 15 MPH. Nothing else to say but it's cold. |
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Sunday, October 31st 1999 (McMurdo Base) Gondola is Up! |
| After 4 days of various delays, our gondola is set up in our high bay. We had feared damage to it, due to the sea crate crushing it's box, but our fears were unfounded. The weather today got to condition 2, which is not a good sign for flight operations tomorrow. We are still waiting on the majority of our cargo to arrive. We started work in the early afternoon. After opening the box we had a great time unpacking it. Actually, it seems only Steven was having a good time. |
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Tuesday, October 26th 1999 (McMurdo Base) A day of learning |
| The first half of today was spent dealing with various administrative issues: Waste Management training, NSF Meeting, and drivers licensees. Everything went as well as it could have. At about 1300 (New Zealand) we drove to the barn at Williams field. The barn is where we will be hanging the gondola for testing. Although it's hard to see from the picture, there are two tracks that go into the barn where an A frame hangs. When the door is open, we can wheel the A frame out with the telescope hanging from it. It is a great facility. Unfortunately, the cargo still has not arrived as of 1900 (New Zealand.) The cargo for the NSBF will arrived today around 2200 (New Zealand) and our cargo is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, same time. |
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Monday, October 25th 1999 (McMurdo base) Pietro & Nick Arrive in Antarctica |
| At roughly 1300 Pietro & Nick Arrive in Antarctica (in a C-141D), on the way down, we find out from Steve Peterzen that the box holding the gondola was crushed by a ten ton crate. Because the box is crushed, all Flare Genesis cargo is delayed by one day, in short, none of our equipment (except for the theodolite and theodolite stand) has arrived. Also upsetting, is the fact that the ice cave has not been excavated, which is necessary to calibrate the telescope, however, Steven is getting things moving here at McMurdo to expedite the completion of these tasks. |
