The search for competent mechanical design and electronics technical staff continues. All three electronic positions have been filled, with the appointees taking up duties in August and September. An appointment for one of the mechanical engineering position has been offered and negotiations are in progress. The preferred applicant for the second vacant mechanical engineering position has accepted another position. Another round of advertising may be required.

2.2 Progress

Vacuum testing of the empty cryostat was successful.

The start of the first cooldown, planned for 3 July, has been delayed because the cryocoolers and their mounting bellows are now expected to arrive at the end of July. The helium hoses and accessories have arrived from Gemini. Another problem was the provision of cooling water for the helium compressors. Our original plan for the resurrection of an air-conditioning cooling tower failed as no suitable plant could be located. The back-up plan of connecting to the building water supply failed due to lack of pressure. We are proceeding with the purchase of a recirculating water chiller, available for immediate delivery ex Melbourne.

The design of modifications to our test dewar has been completed and fabrication is progressing well.

Design detailing and the production of fabrication drawings for the spectrograph have been started in early June. The detector mounting box design was completed and it is now being fabricated. We expect to be able to catch up on this work when the new mechanical engineer starts.

After the mirror array blanks were damaged, new ones have been manufactured and sent to Germany. Diamond machining of these blanks has been scheduled for mid August.

The printed circuit boards for the sensor support boards and Phytron backplane have both gone out for manufacture. Delivery of the bare boards is expected towards the end of July. The mechanical assembly of the electronics crates for the control system has been completed and wiring is in progress. The wiring of the cryocooler drive crate has been completed. John Atkin, who, on a temporary appointment, performed this assembly and wiring work over a 15 week period, is unfortunately not able to stay with us any longer. Further progress will be slow until the new electronics technicians start work.

The printed circuits for the detector mounting board and the flex circuits for the cryostat internal wiring are ready for manufacture. A CCD detector mounting board for one of RSAA’s detector systems has been made with the same technology. We intend to wait with the manufacture of the NIFS circuit boards till we have confirmed that there are no problems with this CCD board.

The DHS has been installed and tests have been run to confirm the performance of the DC to DHS data communication. The observed data rates were rather variable. Fine-tuning the DHS configuration seems to have overcome the problems. The CC software is also progressing. Interaction is required between the Focal Plane Mask Wheel and the Filter Wheel to safeguard the detector from saturation when changing occulting disks in an observing scenario. The question whether this interaction is best handled in the CC or in the OCS is not yet conclusively answered. We suspect that a few lines of code at the OCS level could handle this, and estimate that changing the CC software will take around 250 hours. It is not necessary to implement this at a low level, as people operating the system at the lowest levels should know what they are doing.

2.3 Schedule

The revised schedule submitted as part of the CDR documentation will be considered as the “current schedule”. Progress is consistent with this schedule.

3 Technical Progress

3.1 Completed Tasks

No tasks were completed during the reporting period.

Task WBS	hrs	Finish Date	Title	Deliverables

3.2 Tasks in Progress

4.1.1 Cryostat and OIWFS Duplication – Project Management

A continuing task. JvH: 21 hrs.

4.2.1 Cryostat and OIWFS Duplication – Design and Supervision

A continuing task. CV and others: 64 hrs.

4.2.2 Cryostat and OIWFS Duplication – Parts Fabrication

Workshop effort 187 hrs this period.

4.2.4.2/4.2.4.3 Cryostat and OIWFS Duplication – Assemble VJ/Pump and Vacuum Test 1

CV, PC, DM, and others: 13 hrs.

4.3.1 Control System – Design and Supervision

Purchasing and design. MID: 25 hrs.

4.3.2 Control System – General Fabrication

Equipment mounting: JA: 148 hrs.

4.3.6 Control system - Extra Design

MID: 68 hrs

4.3.7 Control system – Mechanical Work

Workshop: 5 hrs.

5.1.1 Spectrograph Construction – Project Management

A continuing task, JvH: 21.5 hrs

5.1.5 Spectrograph Construction – PS Miscellaneous

PM: 12 hrs.

5.3.8 Spectrograph Optical Fabrication – Pupil Mirror Array

Manufacture blanks, workshop: 43 hrs.

5.4.1 Produce Fabrication Drawings – Disperser Turret

JH: 29 hrs.

5.4.4 Produce Fabrication Drawings – Detector Mount

PC: 56 hrs.

5.4.10 Produce Fabrication Drawings – Camera Mount

No progress.

5.7.4 Components Controller s/w

MJ: 50 hrs.

5.7.5 Instrument Sequencer s/w

MJ: 7.5 hrs.

5.8.6.1 Test Cryostat – Design Mechanical Modifications

PC: 34 hrs.

5.8.6.2 Test Cryostat – Manufacture Parts

Workshop effort 144 hrs.

5.8.7.4 Test Cryostat - Detector Mount Board Design

MDD: 5 hrs

5.8.7.5 Test Cryostat - Detector Mount Board PCB Layout

MDD: 18 hrs

5.8.7.6 Test Cryostat – Flex Circuits Design

MDD: 5 hrs

5.8.7.7 Test Cryostat - Flex Circuits PCB Layout

MDD: 12 hrs

3.3 Documents Issued

No documents were issued during the reporting period.

Document ID	Rev	Date	Title

4 Schedule Progress

4.1 Updated Schedule

The current schedule is the schedule included in the CDR Documentation.

4.2 Project Statistics

The total work on NIFS during the reporting period is 1007 hours, bringing the total for the project to 15,751 hrs, which represents approximately 50.4% of the total number of hours in the current project plan.

4.3 Milestones

Listed below are the milestones defined in the NIFS contract.

Milestone 3, AURA approval of Final OCDD and FPRD, has been postponed till these documents will be submitted after changes discussed at the CDR can be implemented.

Milestone 4, AURA approval of Detailed Design Documentation after CDR has been postponed till the Acceptance Test Plan, the Verification and Commissioning Plan and the Spares List will be submitted after changes discussed at the CDR can be implemented.

Event	Date	Status
(1)Contract fully signed	August 2000	Completed
(2) Placement of order for vacuum jacket forging	August 2000	Completed
(3) AURA approval of Final FPRD and OCDD	5 December 2000	To be submitted with CDR documentation
(4) AURA approval of Detailed Design Documentation after CDR	January 2001	CDR 19 April 2001
(5) Start of first Cryostat and OIWFS cooldown	14 May 2001
(6) Completion of Cryostat and OIWFS Duplication (As task is described in Conceptual Design Documentation)	4 October 2001
(7) Completion of Spectrograph Construction (As task is described in Conceptual Design Documentation)	22 March 2002
(8) Authorization to ship instrument given by AURA	19 July 2002
(9) Completion of all Work and Final Acceptance given by AURA	1 October 2002

5 Financial Progress

The exchange rate used is the rate applicable to a particular transaction, or the rate on the last day of the reporting period. On 29 June 2001 the rate was 0.508.

5.1 Income

No income was gained during the reporting period.

5.2 Outgoings

5.2.1 Labour

The NIFS account was charged for 995 hrs of work for the reporting period. This is the total number of hours (1007) minus the hours for the Project Scientist (12). The total charge is US$34,825 (A$68,553)

5.2.2 Other Costs - Expenditure and Commitments

The following table lists all expenditure incurred and all new commitments made during the reporting period.

Note: “Type” indicates: e – expenditure, c - commitment

5.3 Financial Status

6 Problem Areas

6.1 Technical Problems

Measures are in place to minimise delays resulting from the unavailability of as-built and performance information on NIRI and its control software.

6.2 Scheduling Problems

The next minor milestone on the current schedule is the start of cooldown cycle 0 (cryostat with Cold Work Surface and radiation shields) planned for 3 July has been delayed. A new date will be set when the cryocoolers and their mounting bellows arrive. At this stage we are confident that this delay will have minimal impact on the first OIWFS cooldown scheduled for October, if the OIWFS components and detector system arrive in time.

6.3 Financial Problems

There are no financial problems.

7 Action Items

The following Action Items are outstanding.

No.	Action	Who	Status
4	Negotiate delivery schedule for As Built NIRI drawings with IfA	RAN	Mechanical drawings received.
9	Send 7 cryo stepper motors to ANU	RAN	1 received (no further action required till later)
10	Provide details on vacuum grease in use at Gemini	RAN	Closed Information provided
11	Provide details of NIRI nitrogen venting arrangement	RAN