Title: CXC Managers Status Report For the period Oct 05 Mar 06
1CXC Managers Status ReportFor the period Oct 05
Mar 06
- Chandra Users Committee Meeting
- Roger Brissenden
- 5 April 2006
2Topics
- Program Level Status
- Program Management
- Spacecraft
- Mission Planning
- Science Instruments and Calibration
- OCC
- Data Processing
- CXCDS
- CDO
- Education and Outreach
- Mission Metrics
- Chandra Grant Awards
3Program Level Status
- Program Management
- Budget NASA required a 5 reduction to the FY06
CXC budget in February and steps are being taken
to accommodate this mid-year. Plans are not
final, but steps will include some reduction to
GO funds (aim is to minimize this), freezing
open/future-attrition positions and moving staff
as needed to fill required functions, and
modifying phasing of funds to subcontractors.
Further reductions in FY07 would impact CXC
functions. - Staffing The Flight team has undergone a series
of staff changes beginning with the retirement of
the FOT manager, Leon McKendrick and the
promotion of Dan Shropshire to the position. New
Ground Team and Facilities Team leads are also
being appointed through internal hiring. We are
confident in the new FOT and OCC team
organization and staffing. - Facilities The CXC Data System group moved (Dec
05) from offices in Harvard Square to new leased
space at Cambridge Discovery Park, about 1.5
miles northwest of 60 Garden Street, that also
houses other SAO units. The move was accomplished
smoothly, with no disruption to operations.
4CXC Organization
5Flight Operations Team Staff Changes
Christine Harbison (Operations Manager, Flight
Software) left the program Craig Mahon assumed
Acting Operations Manager duties in January
2006 Eric Page assumed Flight Software
responsibilities in January 2006 Rich Myers
assumed SMF management duties in January
2006 Brad Bissell completed transition from MP to
Eng Sabina Bucher transitioning to become MP
Manager Ken Gage transitioning to become
Propulsion / PCAD engineer
6Program Level Status
- Spacecraft
- Continues to operate extremely well overall
- Nominal passage through winter 2006 eclipses and
lunar eclipse on 11/1/05 - Patched Flight Software to raise EPHIN E1300
channel high-radiation threshold - Patched On-Board Computer to eliminate SIM move
to mid-point during SCS107, to reduce temperature
spikes on translation motor - Completed final build and reviews of recompiled
Flight Software preparing to enter test phase - ACA dark current calibrations 11/12/05, 3/5/06
7Program Level Status
- Spacecraft (cont) Anomalies
- On 1/12/06, a command overlap condition was
identified between the JAN1106A mission loads and
the autonomous eclipse exit commanding (SCS 33)
that resulted in the Sun Position Monitor being
enabled outside the Fine Sun Sensors field of
view (unexpected state). We disabled the monitor
via the appropriate ground commands. Additional
Mission Planning Guidelines and load review tool
updates are in work to prevent future
occurrences. - A brief amount of anomalous telemetry was seen
(15 Dec) in the secondary engineering portion of
the HRC telemetry stream. The anomalous data had
no operational impact, and no corruption of the
x-ray event data was observed. The event is
under investigation. - Mission Planning
- SCS107 ran once (21 Mar) due to high radiation
event, requiring replan - 5 load interrupt TOOs
- Date Target Days
- 10/25/05 GRB051022 1
- 12/22/05 GRB051221 1
- 01/04/06 GRB051221 (followup) 8
- 01/11/06 GRB060108 3
- 03/29/06 SGR 190014 3
8Program Level Status
- EPHIN
- Spacecraft temperatures have increased due to
degradation of the metalized Mylar insulation - Keeping the EPHIN (Electron Proton Helium
Instrument) particle detector cool caused
substantial constraints on spacecraft attitudes,
restricted observation durations and made mission
planning very difficult. - Investigation showed that EPHIN can operate at up
to 120F without damage. The Flight Director Board
authorized increasing the allowed EPHIN
temperature from 96F to 110F, and the trigger
threshold of one of the electron detection
channels (E1300) by a factor of two. - E1300 threshold increase will decrease false
SCS107 triggers due to puffed-up radiation belts - Temperature increase will increase number of
27-volt power supply dropouts, but this is
considered not harmful, and is acceptable to the
engineering team and the EPHIN principal
investigator - These changes have resulted in more flexible
mission planning
9Program Level Status
- Science Instruments
- Instruments are operating extremely well
- The HRC Engineering (proof of concept) unit
will be integrated with the spacecraft simulator
(the Avionics and Software Validation Test set)
to allow testing new or modified HRC on-orbit
procedures directly with the simulator. - OCC
- The OCC ground system was successfully migrated
from Silicon Graphics to Linux-based computers 29
Nov. Operations continued seamlessly, with no
disruption. - Telex/RTS was selected to replace the voice
communications system delivery expected May 06.
10Program Level Status
- Data Processing
- Automatic processing is current median data
delivery time 31.1 hours from end of observation
to delivery to user - Complete data reprocessing (Repro 3) began 15
Feb incorporates most recent algorithms and
calibrations 8 months of data (starting Jan 05)
reprocessed to date - CXC Data System Major Releases
- Version Date Main contents
- DS 7.6.4 Nov05 Multi-obi VV fix obs completion
policy - CIAO 3.3 Nov05 Science tools library upgrades
new tools cycle 8 proposal tools - DS 7.6.5 Dec05 Cycle 8 proposal s/w charge time
update - DS 7.6.6 Jan06 Implement new observ policy in
archive - DS 7.6.7 Feb06 Repro 3 s/w telem aspect
enhancements - Also 6 data system patches (Nov, Dec 2, Jan,
Feb, Mar) s/w fixes updates
11Program Level Status
- Calibration Database (CalDB) Releases
- 2 releases v. 3.2.0 (21 Nov), v. 3.2.1 (15 Dec)
incorporate updates in 10 calibration product
areas - GO and Fellows Programs
- Cycle 8 Call for Proposals was issued 16 Dec
proposal deadline was 15 March - 726 proposals were received process went
smoothly - 9th Chandra Fellows cycle Record 88 applications
received (accepted electronically, by 9 Nov)
peer review 18 Jan, 5 Fellows selected (from
Spain, U.S., Italy, Japan to Rutgers, Inst. Adv.
Study, CfA, Michigan, Penn State) - Education and Public Outreach
- 13 press activities
- 1 press conference release at January AAS, with
6 images - 8 press releases, 5 image releases
- 32 major print articles, incl. 2 in USA Today
269 major web articles 2 items on broadcast
news (NRP, Voice of America)
12Mission MetricsMUPS Fuel Usage
13Mission MetricsThruster Warm Starts
14Mission Metrics Scheduled Observing Efficiency
15Mission MetricsObserving Efficiency
16Data Delivery Effectiveness
17Grant Award Effectiveness
18Grant Award Efficiency