On 19 December 2000, ANU announced the NIFS contract at a function at the Mount Stromlo Visitor Centre. The Australian Capital Territory government was represented by Brendan Smyth, Deputy Chief Minister, while Prof. John Richardson attended on behalf of ANU. Also present were representatives of Auspace and Craigie Industrial Engineers, two of our subcontractors. There was excellent media coverage on local radio and television and in the local and national newspapers.

Some more progress was made identifying suitable guide stars for potential NIFS targets. To this end, the services of a research assistant were made available during December by RSAA without cost to the NIFS project.

The OCDD was revised and internal review will take place early in January.

At the same time the Verification and Commissioning plan was written, describing the tests required to verify compliance with the OCDD.

2 Project Manager’s Report

This monthly report on NIFS activities covers the four week period from 4 to 29 December.

The continuing non-availability of NIRI as-built documentation hampers progress on CC and IS software development, control system design and procurement, and cryostat and OIWFS duplication.

2.1 Staffing

The search for competent mechanical design staff continues without success. The situation is set to worsen as Glen Jones, the engineer in charge of the NIRI duplication work, announced his resignation, effective from 19 January 2001. With the preparations for the CDR in progress, time is not available to dedicate to recruitment, but waiting till after CDR will slow down the flow of work. Avenues outside the normal ANU recruitment procedures are being explored.

An electronics technical officer vacancy still exists. We are also exploring the possibilities for filling the temporary position required for the fabrication of the NIFS control system.

2.2 Progress

The University closed from 22 December 2000 to 1 January 2001 inclusive. Several project staff took holidays the week before and/or after the closure.

Various aspects of the optical design are being checked: ghosting, scattered light, distortion, and error budgets. The image slicer mirror arrays have been fully specified and one array has been ordered, as a test piece, from the Labor fuer Microverspanung at the University of Bremen at a cost of US$4000. Its manufacture is scheduled for the last week in February. This will allow us to report on the outcome at the CDR.

The integration of the various spectrograph assembly designs in the overall mechanical design is continuing.

The mechanical workshop has continued to fabricate components for the NIRI duplication. A breakdown of the NC mill and annual maintenance in the week before Christmas have slowed work down.

The design of the NIFS modifications to the NIRI control system and consequently its manufacture have been dormant pending the provision of NIRI as-built documentation by Gemini. A review of the situation in preparation for CDR has shown that further waiting will risk project delay. We will need to develop our own schematics and PCB layouts for most of the system and re-design and manufacture several printed circuit boards and part of the wiring.

There has been no worthwhile progress with the CC and DC software, due to other leave scheduled commitments.

The design of the revised detector mounting board has been continued. Schematics of the detector board and internal and external cryostat wiring are near completion and PCB layout has been started. A liquid nitrogen dewar was fitted with some parts to assess temperature control performance of the Lakeshore controller under various circumstances. Tests have shown that a thermal mass similar to that to be used on the back of the detector socket can be controlled to ±1 mK at a control temperature of 150 K. Disturbances introduced by a heater resistor at one end of the copper block of up to 20 mW for 10 sec, somewhat more than the detector dissipation during read-out, did not show up in the temperature of the control point. Similarly, the controlled temperature was not disturbed by cyclic variations of up to 10 degrees of a small mass halfway along the cold strap from the liquid nitrogen tank to the main thermal mass.

2.3 Schedule

The schedule will undergo thorough revision in preparation for CDR.

3 Technical Progress

3.1 Completed Tasks

Task WBS	hrs	Finish Date	Title	Deliverables

3.2 Tasks in Progress

2.1.1 NIFS Critical Design - Project Management

A continuing task. JvH: 29.5 hrs.

2.1.6 PS Miscellaneous

A continuing task to record various activities. 19 hrs.

2.2.1 Revise OCDD

PJM: 33 hrs.

2.2.2 Revise FPRD

JvH: 1 hr.

2.2.3 Science Case

Looking for more targets: PJM: 12 hrs.

2.3.1 Requirements Analysis

No progress this period.

2.3.2 Acceptance Test Plan

JvH: 1 hr.

2.3.3 Verification and Commissioning Plan

PJM: 4 hrs.

2.3.5 Manuals

PJM: 21 hrs.

2.3.8 Produce CDR Documentation

PJM: 5 hrs, JvH 4.5 hrs.

2.4.6 Revise Error Budget and Specify Tolerances

JH: 11 hrs.

2.4.16 Specify and Negotiate IFU Machining

JH: 31 hrs.

2.4.17 Negotiate Diamond Turning of Non-IFU Mirrors

No progress this period.

2.5.2.3 Disperser Turret/Bypass Mirror Design

Continued: LP 192 hrs.

2.5.2.4 Develop IFU

No progress this period.

2.5.2.6 Design Array and TriFold Mirror

No progress this period.

2.5.2.7 Detector Mount Design

PC: 10 hrs.

2.5.2.10 Design Entrance Turret

Assembly design for entrance turret. PC: 78 hrs

2.5.2.12 Camera Mount Design

No progress this period.

2.5.2.13 Design Baffle System

No progress this period.

2.6.2.1 Detector Mount Board Wiring Design

MDD: 35 hrs.

2.6.2.2 Detector Mount Board Wiring Layout

WG: 35.25 hrs.

2.7.4 Component Controller Software

MJ: 44.5 hrs.

2.7.6 Detector Controller Software

PJY: 28.5 hrs.

4.1.1 Cryostat and OIWFS Duplication – Project Management

A continuing task. JvH: 7 hrs.

4.2.1 Cryostat and OIWFS Duplication – Design and Supervision

A continuing task. GJ and others: 110 hrs.

4.2.2 Cryostat and OIWFS Duplication – Parts Fabrication

Workshop effort 264 hrs this period.

4.3.1 Control System – Design and Supervision

Prepare purchasing list and request quotes. MID: 21 hrs.

5.8.8.1 Test Cryostat Temperature Control – Design Control system

MDD: 15 hrs for temperature control tests.

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 “NIFS Revised Costing”. A schedule revised for the expected delivery dates of the detectors and the late start on cryostat and OIWFS duplication was developed. It also takes into account the proposed delayed CDR date of 22 February 2001. This revised schedule was submitted during September 2000. The schedule will be revised again and the new schedule will be presented in the CDR documentation.

4.2 Project Statistics

18 people have contributed to the NIFS project during this period. They worked a total of 836 hours, bringing the total for the project to 7219 hrs, which represents approximately 23.8 % of the total number of hours in the current project plan. 61% of the number of hours allocated for the critical design study have been used and 83% of those for the mechanical fabrication and supervision of the Cryostat and OIWFS Duplication.

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 to the CDR date, which is now set for April 2001.

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 now 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 December 2000 the rate was 0.555.

5.1 Income

No income was gained during the reporting period.

5.2 Outgoings

5.2.1 Labour

The NIFS account was charged for 770 hrs of work from 4 to 29 December 2000. This is the total number of hours (864) minus the hours for the Project Scientist (94). The total charge is US$26,950 (A$48,559)

5.2.2 Other Costs

5.2.2.1 Expenditure

The following expenditure was incurred during the reporting period.

2.6.2.1 Detector Mount Board Design

Electronics Components US$ 8 A$ 14

4.6.1 NIRI Duplication – Consumables

Freight & customs US$ 34 A$ 62

-------------- ------------

total US$ 42 A$ 76

5.2.2.2 Commitments

The ANU accounting system also includes ‘commitments’, where a purchase order has been raised, but goods or services have not yet been delivered, invoiced and paid. New commitments are listed here, but not included in the financial status report.

4.2.2.2 NIRI Duplication – Machine VJ

Broens – Endplates US$ 3,822 A$ 6,886

4.6.2 NIRI Duplication – Consumables

Bandsaw blade US$ 179 A$ 322

5.3.8 Spectrograph Optical Fabrication – Pupil Mirror Array

Labor fuer Microverspanung US$ 4,000 A$ 7,692

-------------- ------------

total US$ 8,001 A$14,900

5.3 Financial Status

Date	Description	Income (US$)	Income (A$)	Outgoings (US$)	Outgoings (A$)
29 Jul 00	Labour			37,940	64,524
01 Sep 00	Labour			48,125	83,696
01 Sep 00	Other Costs			1,607	2,773
29 Sep 00	Labour			44,205	82,626
29 Sep 00	Other Costs			7,748	14,483
27 Oct 00	Labour			35,525	68,056
27 Oct 00	Other Costs			12,014	23,015
01 Dec 00	Labour			44,100	83,523
01 Dec 00	Other Costs			8,026	15,200
29 Dec 00	Labour			26,950	48,559
29 Dec 00	Other Costs			42	76
29 Dec 00	Balance			266,282	486,531

6 Problem Areas

6.1 Technical Problems

The only technical problem impeding project progress is the unavailability of as-built information on NIRI and its control software.

6.2 Scheduling Problems

The purchase and delivery of items on the critical path of the project may be delayed because of the delayed execution of the NIFS contract and other delays caused by it.

6.3 Financial Problems

There are no financial problems.

7 Action Items

The following Action Items are outstanding.

No.	Action	Who	Status
1	ICD16 Parameter Definition Format. Clarification	RAN	Closed. PJY to contact Steve Wampfler
2	Revise NIFS schedule to reflect FPA delivery lead time	JvH	Closed Plan updated
3	Generate ordered list of "As Built" NIRI drawings	JvH	Closed List provided
4	Negotiate delivery schedule for As Built NIRI drawings with IfA	RAN	Mechanical drawings are now available, to be delivered to RSAA as soon as possible.
5	Determine status of NIRI manuals	RAN	Closed Not available in time for CDR
6	Determine specifications and manufacturer of NIRI CaF2 window	RAN	Closed Information provided
7	Make tar archive of operational NIRI software	RAN	Closed Software received
8	Determine status of IfA OIWFS fabrication	RAN	Work in progress, to be checked regularly
9	Send 7 cryo stepper motors to ANU	RAN	1 received
10	A flip-in acquisition mirror will be incorporated into the design	JvH	Closed. Documentation to be changed as required
11	Send examples of Commisioning and Verification Plans	RAN	Closed. No longer required
12	Relay urgency of NIFS contract approval	RAN	Closed NIFS contract signed
13	Check impact of late OIWSF parts delivery by UH on NIFS schedule	JvH	Closed. Early May 2001 is latest delivery possible on the currently proposed plan.