The team arrived at Esrange (just outside Kiruna, Sweden) to prepare to launch XL-Calibur on Friday May 6th, and our first few days have been very productive! On Friday we fully assembled the truss, installed the polarimeter, and completed initial testing of our flight systems and the detector itself. We are very pleased to announce that all of our electronics survived their journey from South Texas to the Arctic Circle! Saturday, our Japanese colleagues successfully installed the mirror and then completed initial alignment measurements on Sunday. Our Swedish teammates also performed initial threshold optimizations of the shield (which filters out high energy particles that can interact with the detector and disrupt the signal from the source we’re observing). This is really an incredible amount of progress for only a few days of work, and a testament to the cohesion of our team and the supportive and cooperative atmosphere that we’ve created through years of co-development and collaboration.
Lots to unpack…The mirror section of the truss being attached to complete the structure of the telescopeLindsey Lisalda and Nicole Rodriguez delicately checking on the wiring of the polarimeterTakuya Miyazawa, Hirotmitsu Takahashi, Wataru Kamogawa, Yuusuke Uchida in front of the X-Ray mirror, still in its protective case.Nicole Rodriguez, Sean Spooner, and Andrew West wiring up and testing the ground computers that command the instrument. Mirror installationTakuya Miyazawa, Yuusuke Uchida, Wataru Kamogawa, and Hiromitsu Takahashi after a successful alignment test!Dana Braun and Garry Simburger wiring up electronics.An action shot of Ephraim Gau installing flight computers on the gondola.PI Henric Krawczynski installing the battery boxMark Pearce and Nirmal Iyer prepare a fixture to hold a radioactive source used to irradiate the shield. Mózsi Kiss and Nirmal Iyer hard at work calibrating the shield.Andrew West, Fabian Kislat, Mózsi Kiss, and Nirmal Iyer do some computer maintenance on the polarimeter CPU.Fabian Kislat and Nicole Rodriguez debugging softwareA view of the assembled truss with the detector (near end) and mirror (far end) installed.
One Comment
Great progress in a short time. Congrats. Wish you all the best for getting good results.
Great progress in a short time. Congrats. Wish you all the best for getting good results.