Minutes from May 1998 EXES Meeting

Link to the glossary

JL, DJ, MKH, and MR attending

The focus of this EXES meeting is on scheduling.

JL had a meeting with P. Kelton and J. Booth regarding engineering support from McDonald. One worry is that we are underestimating the engineering support needed. A bigger worry is that no engineering help is available for forseeable future.

TEXES schedule (test EXES)

• test grating
  • purchase order going in for blank preparation.
  • JL & MR will do 10" long, 2" square cross-section test to investigate warping during machining and annealing
    
• dewar modifications should occupy summer
• observing at McDonald as early as December (if all goes well) using 20x64 pixel detector.

EXES opto/mech/cryo proposed schedule

• possible engineering support from J. Good or outside consultant (depends on McDonald) -- 1-3 man month from June to October
• PDR in August (most likely not funded by SOFIA, so we will need to draw on local talent)
• Drafting -- 3 man month from November to Feb
• F. Ray for FAA calculations -- 1 man month Sep to Dec
• FAA approval - Jan 99
• dewar order - Feb 99
• machining - Feb-May 99
• assembly - Jun-Aug 99

Proposed alternative schedule that waits until Jan when HET engineers are available was discussed. JL will be less available once classes start. Generally decided to pursue proposed schedule. Contact outside astronomy groups for information about available engineers. The tail end of the adopted schedule is probably too optimistic.

EXES electronics schedule

• Need to decide on detector before ordering electronics. May have info regarding Boeing detector by mid-June. DJ going out of town until then, so decision will be made upon his return.
• Once detector chosen, put out bids for electronics with required specifications. Need to make sure specs are appropriate and that evaluation criteria are included to ensure best system is chosen.

EXES software schedule

• Block diagram needs to be more detailed. Work on each box specifying lower level components.
• Worry about communications between systems first.
• Summer to get basics of software system organized. At that point, may want to see about getting outside help (someone who has done this before).
• plan to work incrementally with ground based systems

EPO (report)
-plane tour for October because plane mothballed outside on tarmac.
-2 people haven't come to any meetings. MKH to see if they're still interested. Room for more.
-MKH has contacted science person at AISD about further recruiting.
-MKH gave 5 talks in MS (two colleges, two high schools, and one public)

ACTION ITEMS:
JL:
-start purchase order for test grating
-start 1/4 size scale machining (check access to Mech E oven for annealing)
-talk with other astronomy instrument builders about engineering help
-talk with McD about engineering support

MKH:
-contact EPO participants regarding tour date change after making arrangements with Raytheon
-contact no-shows about continued participation
-arrange travel payments for Spring EPO participants

MR:
-detail software block diagram
-prepare FAA layout drawings
-finish 1/4 size scale bar
-electronics specs writeup

Dan:
-Public talk

Link to the glossary

Return to EXES Homepage