The positions of all the invar buttons & reference points for various planes to be measured with the Faro Arm were marked on pieces of funky yellow duct tape.
The Faro (aka Langarm) is equipped to take care of itself if left to contend with gravity. This is all very well, but also means that handling the arm can at times seem more like a snake-wrangling exercise! Especially tricky when trying to avoid the mirror surfaces while at the same time negotiating around the NRS simulator super-structure - very well done James!
The Faro + its associated software is an incredibly powerful tool. At worst, it measures the position of a point to better than one fifth the thickness of a human hair!
With the primary mirror cover out of the way, the guys could start re-installing segments today - in this case, a beautifully clean specimen!
Mirror segment on its way back up to the primary via the hatch in the loading bay...
The white-board in the control room got busy as Darragh started jotting down the current set of to-do lists for individual aspects of the IQ plan...
That is quite some to-do list!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the blog and keeping us updated, Lisa. It's very informative and great to know what's happening at SALT, as-it-happens :)
Good luck with the rest of the testing and repair process. We'll be following the action from here!
Elmé (Southampton)