2017 December: Good-bye Toulouse

News

21 December 2017

SPIRou was packed and shipped to Hawaii

During two weeks of intense work, SPIRou was entirely dismounted in order to be shipped to Hawaii.

2017/12 – Crating of the SPIRou spectrograph optics and fibers (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)

All critical optical components of the cryogenic spectrograph, in particular the mammoth parabola, the triple-prism train, the massive camera,the discreet fold-mirror,the miniature pupil slicer and the sensitive grating were removed from their mounts, and carefully packed in custom designed cases with thick foam protections to ensure a safe travel to Hawaii. The whole cryogenic device, including the optical bench, the internal support frame with its cooling system, and the cylindrical enclosure were also dismantled and re-packed in the crates in which they originally arrived from Victoria, Canada, 18 months ago. Similarly, the Cassegrain unit and the calibration unit, along with their control systems, were dismounted, packed in their respective protection boxes and fitted into larger crates.

Altogether, 9 tons of equipment were packed into 13 crates, regularly transferred from IRAP into a nearby storage place at a pace of 1-2 crates per day, with the last crate leaving IRAP on December 21st as initially planed for this complex and carefully prepared logistic operation.
The whole IRAP/OMP team was involved full time in this task under the constant supervision of Driss Kouach as project manager, with unfailing support from Vlad Reshetov and Scott MacDonald (from NRC-H in Victoria, Canada) for the spectrograph part, and of the OHP team for the calibration unit. Special thanks to our OMP colleagues Francis Lacassagne, René Dorignac, Laurent Guesdon, Maxime Viau, Philippe Beau and Eric Chereau  from Pic du Midi, to Jean-François Botte and Eric Le Comte from IRAP / OMP, and to Manu from the logistic company that we hired for the packing operation.
The 13 crates are now in the hands of Ulisse, a team from CNRS specializing in instrument transport, in charge of ensuring that SPIRou will safely reach CFHT following a multi-leg flight, custom clearance and agricultural inspection once in Hawaii and with help from the CFHT team.

The SPIRou team wishes you a happy holiday season.
Stay tuned for more SPIRou adventures atop Maunakea in 2018.

[HD version]

2017/12 – Preparation before removing the fiber from the SPIRou bench (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Removing the fibers from the SPIRou bench before packing (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Dismounting the Hartmann mechanism before packing (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Last verification of the slicer before disassembly (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Last optical checks before disassembly (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – SPIRou spectrograph bench before dismounting (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Last alignment verifications before disassembly (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Last positioning verifications before disassembly (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Dismounting the Cassegrain unit (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Packing the camera (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Referencing the fold mirror before removing it from its mount (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Removing the off-axis parabola from the SPIRou bench (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Preparing the grating mount before disassembly (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Installing the grating cover (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Packing the grating (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Removing the prisms assembly from the SPIRou bench (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Dismounting the prisms (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – The OHP team dismounting the calibration unit (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Packing the spectrograph internal support frame (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Closing crates (©D.Kouach – OMP/IRAP)
2017/12 – Marking crates and installing sensors (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – Packing the spectrograph control rack (©Z.Challita – IRAP/OMP)
2017/12 – Loading the crates (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)
2017/12 – SPIRou leaves IRAP/OMP (©S.Chastanet – CNRS/OMP)

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