The first box of production FPUs finally arrived this week! These will be inspected, then tested on the automated verification rig and compared against the factory end-of-line report. Assuming they all perform as well as expected, subsequent batches will begin to roll in quickly. Installation onto the baseplate won't commence until fibres are delivered and … Continue reading First FPU delivery
Fibre Positioner production begins
Following on from a lifetime test and 'design freeze' review in January, the Production Readiness Review milestone for the MOONS Fibre Positioning Units was successfully passed at MPS's factory in Biel/Bienne in March. This is a major project success and means that manufacture of the instrument FPUs can now begin! MPS hope to deliver the … Continue reading Fibre Positioner production begins
FPM baseplate delivered
The FPU baseplate was delivered today from Alimex, looking big and shiny and giving a worrying sense of scale for what is to come... The inspection report shows that the part meets the 10 micron profile tolerances on the FPU facets, which is extremely impressive considering the size and amount of material removal required. It … Continue reading FPM baseplate delivered
FPM baseplate in manufacture
Pictures from a visit to see the Fibre Positioning Module baseplate being manufactured at Alimex GmbH in Willich, nr Dusseldorf. The plate is being machined on a massive DMU 270P 5-axis mill. The monolothic baseplate is made from ultra-stable 5080 ACP aluminium alloy. It has 1069 'facets' onto which the FPUs, acquisition cameras and fiducials … Continue reading FPM baseplate in manufacture
MOONS: Multi-object Optical and Near-IR spectrograph 