Closing Lloro

With the lab set up, our first big task was to get our cryostat Llorothaag (aka Lloro) ready to do science. She both holds Spider’s six telescope inserts, and allows the detectors to reach the extremely cold temperature they need to operate with high sensitivity. Lloro has layers nested within that get progressively colder: starting with the vacuum vessel at ambient temperature that allows the air to be removed inside like a vacuum flask; then two layers of vapour cooled shields (VCS) before reaching the main liquid helium tank and the smaller superfluid helium tank, and finally the closed cycle helium-3 adsorption fridges. To get ready to operate, these layers need to be disassembled, before the science instruments can be installed inside, and then all closed again.

We also had a trickle of new people arriving throughout the week. First Elle and Simon arrived, followed Johanna and Jared, then Bill, and finally Jason and Sho. We also lost Sherry, who left to start her new job and be reuinited with her puppy. Bye Sherry, we’ll miss you!

Vy works on a telescope insert

Simon and Elle work on another

They work together on their first day after arrivinig

Conveniently for those of us trying to photograph the new arrivals at work

"Team Overalls" start to assemble the gondola

Over in the other highbay. Starting with the ground support cart.

Day off

On our first day off, we visit the drive through safari park

Feed me!

This miniature royal yak neatly sums up the experience

Stinky boy

Poses in front of a pond

Back to inserts

And back to work

Finishing the last IRTHM

It gets a rotation stage to earn the R in Insert Rotation Thingamajig

Suren poses with his handy work

All six inserts at once!

We can now fully parallelize

The housekeeping break-out panel

We try to condense wiring messiness into a few places. This is one of the neater ones

Hiding the mess again

Lloro's top dome open

The first stage of opening is to have the riggers lift this off with a crane

Bottom dome in a corner

The lighter bottom dome can be taken off by hand

Neutral resting position

On the cart, when empty

Suren pulls

To a non-neutral horizontal position for easier access

Surprise portrait

I catch Simon having a snack

Elle insepcts carbon fiber legs

Which support the separate temperature stages in the insert.

Susan takes it outside

With sunglasses and new gloves

To look cool while cleaning insert wraps

Joseph over in "Bemco-land"

Where we continue to prepare for thermal-vacuum testing

Vy at her desk

Dealing with another experiment (SuperBIT) temporarily

Lloro's empty bottom

Lloro's empty top

It's full of faces!

An uncovered detector focal plane

Though the detectors themselves are hidden behind yet another filter

Installing a "spittooon"

A layer of magnetic shielding and filters that surrounds the detectors

Tiny Cat

Our slightly feral friend that lives near the hotel

Susan climbs into the back of the busy Bemco chamber

Somehow

Preparing to insert inserts

Corwin reflects

On the filter stacks beneath an insert's vacuum window

Elle and Y3

Two inserts inserted, from the top

A half-wave plate on top of the lower insert

Allows us to rotate the polarization signal we measure, making the detection more robust

Filter on top of other insert

This thermal filter allows the detectors to get cold, while still being able to see the sky

Insert insertion

Using people power

Getting closer

Jared helps from the front

Another new arrival

Inside the Bemco chamber (round 1)

We finally have everything ready to test in simulate flight conditions

Simon attempts to close the door

Unsuccessfully

Vy inspects an insert

Before it can be loaded.

Suren install heat straps

To connect different parts of the insert to our different temperature stages at 2 K and 4 K (degrees above absolute zero)

Joseph closes the door successfully

He's the flight engineer that has been helping us out. (He was the official engineer for Spider's first flight)

Bemco business

Cable feed-throughs into the vacuum chamber. And a pressure gauge showing 2 mbar (1/500 of normal atmosphere)

Testing a vacuum window

Corwin measures how far it deflects

Johanna adjusts a half-wave plate rotation mechanism

One of them got a little wobbly during shipping.

Cool Spider sweater

Wearable thanks to extreme air conditioning in Texas

Corwin IB checking

This automatically checks that all of the detectors are connected. Using the readout electronics crates recently released from their Bemco test

Elle inspects a thermal filter stack

And poses with her handiwork

Catching Bill doing real work

He managed to escape meetings long enough to join us

Sorted screws

Heroically separated after unintentional combining during shipping

Filter reflections

Joseph making cables

With improvised wire spool

All six telescope inserts

Loaded into the bottom of the main tank

Stacked insert holders

A closer look at the capillary assembly

Though most of the interesting bits are covered in the box on the bottom

All six half-wave plates installed on top

And all rotating successfully

Debugging

Wiring issues were discovered (and fixed) in one of the inserts

Jason tests wires

One of our latest new arrivals

Team filter stacking

Inclusing Sho. The other new arrival that I appear to have not gotten good photographs of

Suren working on the gondola

The top half of Lloro

Complete and ready for insulation layers

Upper half of top half

Dremel tool

It's always a "good" sign when that's needed

Who needs fancy fiberglass?

When you can use a popsicle stick in a pinch

Testing vacuum gauges

First layer of thermal shielding on top

aka VCS1 (vapour cooled shield #1)

More filter stacking

Corwin finishes the bottom

The complete bottom half of Lloro

Bottom half in profile

A look at the new sapphire filter installed on VCS1

With cool swirly pattern of clips

VCS1 top complete shield and fitlers

Plus cardboard covers over the more delicate filters

Complete and shiny VCS1

Including an insulating blanket of multi-layer insulation (MLI)

Elle waves

Hello shiny filter

Second shield layer: VCS2 top

The first shield VCS1 coming together on the bottom

Caught you!

Suren uses an adjustable wrench

Installing the bottom blanket

This takes a lot of hands, and a fair bit of fussing.

Cryogenic housekeeping electronics

And a mess of cables. Testing that all the thermometers and heaters work.

Wiring on VCS2 top

Jared and Sho close up VCS2 on the bottom

While Corwin and Vy fix up its blanket

Final bottom blanket

Removing the filter covers on top

And installing the final blanket there too

This operation requires a lot of ladders

Underneath the top dome

Showing the recessed window buckets and their layer of filters

Bottom dome installation

With Vy and Sho providing people power

With Suren and Johanna

Among others, on the other side of the circle

"I suck the least"

We test our new set of gauges against our old work horse

Joseph prepares to pump on the vacuum vessel

Post-pumping meeting

And collective sigh of relief after a long hard week.