The inside story at Nevis Labs, Part 4.

Before I accepted the NuSTAR job, Carl warned me that pressure levels would rise as the project neared completion. Not only was the schedule tight, but also there was competition for funds between the different project groups. NuSTAR had started once before and then been abruptly canceled, with the project manager learning about the cancellation at a press conference. Government and warm fuzzy feelings really don't go together. There was tension also because of the precision required in the assembly of the optics. Any lapse in concentration could result in broken glass, contamination, or misaligned mirrors.

I didn't have to wait until the end of the project to see emotions arise. My very first day inside the lab, when I was at Nevis during my interview trip, Tom snapped briefly at Iliya over some minor problem. I really didn't think much about it. During my interview the next day, though, Bill told me that Iliya had quit. I was flabbergasted. Quit? Iliya came back, of course, but during my time in NY everyone who worked in the optics lab (except Ken - he might have quit, but I didn't hear about it and he doesn't seem like the type) quit at one time or another but then came right back. Not me, of course. When I quit, I'm gone.

I was responsible for an entirely new level of tension in the lab. There were two components to that. One was that at first no-one was really happy that I was there. They'd made the decision that they needed someone to do my job, but naturally they weren't excited about someone new being in intimate contact with $4M worth of extremely fragile optics. The other component was my personality, however one might view it.

The first disaster occurred when I emailed Todd my timecard on July 24, just 3 weeks into the job. I added a note saying I felt he didn't trust me because of my background as a software engineer, then proceeded to outline my non-software experience. I ended the note with: "Anyway, I do know how to do mechanical things, I'm not a cowboy, and I'll only do what I'm told to do. So relax a little and have some fun!"

Well, that didn't go over very well. Todd (who was in California at the time) wrote back:

"hmmm.....What concerned me is that you said you could run the routine of dressing the wheel and finding it's position. These machines are very unforgiving. I don't doubt that you could find the right program to run but I don't know if you know how to touch off a grinding wheel with the dressing tool, dress the wheel with the diamond tool, null the lvdt, knowing what speed and settings we use to gentle position the spindle, touch off on sacrificial which is a very friable material and know that you are not grinding it while touching off, all the while there is a 2M$ optics sitting there that we are trying hold micron position from layer to layer. The absolute most critical step is finding the grinding radius of the wheel. No one should feel comfortable doing that and that goes for me as well. It Tom more than a month to get used to the controls on the pendant and he is still un-nerved. Ken will not even attempt to dress or find the wheel even though he has seen it dozens of times.

So it bothers me that you think you can do that when I've haven't let you, much less, trained you to do those tasks. Believe me, it is not as easy as it looks and it surprised me that you thought you could do it.

I hope I've explained myself clearly and when these optics are in the hands of the spacecraft contractor, I will relax. Until then, I take this production of the optics extremely seriously and I expect the same from those working for me."

Both Todd and Tom had both given me lessons in dressing and finding the wheel, which somehow had given me the idea that I was expected to do it at some time. Apparently that was not a universal view. It really isn't a complicated job, but I had taken copious notes and paid close attention. I had no doubt then and I have no doubt now that I could have done it as well as anyone.

Todd and I had established a hostile relationship, and there proved to be no way to fully recover.