Assessing the status of the shell

On Wednesday (June 5), most of the work was devoted to an assessment of the damage on the shell.

•  Twenty magnets are rusted and another twelve slightly rusted.

•   For more than thirty actuators, at least 25%of the capacitive sensor area on the shell lost its coating, resulting in the loss of continuity even for an AC signal.

 The performance of the shell will be affected severely, especially due to the clustering of the actuators exhibiting coating losses shown seen below.

It is therefore likely that we will use our spare shell, TS#4, freshly aluminized and still in Tucson... Meanwhile, the current shell, TS#3, will be cleaned up and used to check the electronics of the secondary system.

• Distribution boards were examined for possible water damage. Ten spots have been identified and boards will be cleaned and tested. There is only a limited supply of spare boards, so hopefully most of them will still work...

Involved on Mt Graham: A. Riccardi, J.-C. Guerra, M. Wagner, M. Xompero