Subject: HRI/MRI IP TV4 Flash report                                          
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 21:18:20 -0500                                         
From: Dennis Wellnitz <wellnitz@astro.umd.edu>                                
                                                                              
Hi all,                                                                       
                                                                              
Late Saturday (February 22) we started baking out the moisture from the       
telescope structures and began heating the Instrument Electronics for         
the thermal cycling tests, all under high vacuum.                             
                                                                              
On Sunday (February 23) we continued baking the telescope structures and      
thermal cycling the Instrument Electronics.  The Instrument Electronics       
survived the 70 C survival tests, and turned on at the cold survival          
temperature (-40 C) with an external applied voltage of 27 volts, which       
translates to about 26.4 volts at the HRI electronics and about 26.6          
volts at the MRI electronics.                                                 
                                                                              
Today (Monday, February 24) we continued baking the telescope structures      
and thermal cycling the Instrument Electronics, while in parallel             
aligning the test setup.  By late afternoon the test setup had been           
sufficiently well aligned that we could attempt a through-focus               
measurement on the MRI.  We were able to find the image of the pinhole        
and get adequate data in spite of increased noise due to the high             
temperature of the CCD, which was at about 39 C.  The through-focus           
pinhole data looks quite self-consistent and permits a reasonable             
solution for focus, at approximately the predicted location.  We had not      
expected to reach this point until some time Tuesday, so we are running       
a bit ahead of schedule!  The thermal cycling of the Instrument               
Electronics is also running slightly ahead of schedule.  If this rate of      
progress continues, we should be able to start cooling on Thursday            
morning, immediately upon completion of the bake-out of the telescope         
structures.                                                                   
                                                                              
We currently plan to continue with the planned focus and alignment tests      
on Tuesday and Wednesday, and continue in parallel the thermal cycling        
of the Instrument Electronics, and then to start cooling everything on        
Thursday.                                                                     
                                                                              
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.                     
                                                                              
Also please let me know if you would prefer not to be included on this        
Flash report distribution list, or if there is someone else who should        
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        Dennis