The Long Range Plan:
Cycle 17 update
September 2009
Dave Adler
1
Current state of the LRP
Cycle
Orbits
15/16
348
17
4013
Total
4361(1)
C16 snaps (NIC)
45
Orbits
WFC3
1941
C17 snaps
1338
COS
1235
Total snaps
1383
ACS
543
STIS
544
FGS
87
NIC
96
Visits not in current plan
orbits
unschedulable
81
no plan windows
60
Miscellaneous (ToO, etc)
292
Total not in plan
433
Total
4446(2)
1. SMOV not included in totals.
2. Some programs have more
than one SI prime.
cycle 17
D. Adler
Instrument
TIPS – LRP – 17 September 2009
cycle 17 tail
2
How the Operational LRP was built
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Cycle 17 runs from August 17, 2009 – Sept 1, 2010
Aimed for 80 orbits/week - historical 3-Gyro average
Resulting plan has 10.19 orbits/day in the cycle
including “unplanned” visits adds 1.21 orbits/day
11.4 orbits/day  80 orbits/week – full subscription
Cycle 17 tail (post-9/1/10) includes 830 orbits
• Early priorities in the LRP - from HSTMO:
• SMOV – most pre-cycle, but some planned in cycle
• EROs – most pre-cycle
• ERS – 2 programs, 214 orbits
• finish c15/16 – currently planned: 348 orbits
• GTOs early, if possible – ~300 orbits
• cals early, as needed
• keep programs together when possible
D. Adler
TIPS – LRP – 17 September 2009
3
Early Cycle 17 issues
• SMOV additions/delays caused the start of the cycle to be
heavily oversubscribed.
• 410 orbits of SMOV/science/cals in first three weeks!
• Solution pushed some things later in cycle:
• some COS, NIC SMOV was delayed
• some ERS targets were delayed
• some high-priority GO science was delayed
Why are so many Cycle 17 plan windows late?
• early priorities forced some C17 GOs to be planned late.
• need to account for “unplanned” visits (ToO, HOPRs,
etc) throughout the cycle.
• some DD demand for early orbits – Jupiter, Comet,
LCROSS, etc.
• SMOV/ERS-induced “bow-wave” didn’t help issue.
D. Adler
TIPS – LRP – 17 September 2009
4
It could get worse…
• Some “unplanned” science is now entering the plan:
Chandra-coordinated science (~100 orbits), ToOs, HOPRs, etc.
• On-going SI issues require some plan rework:
• COS FUV planned for the current time frame could move
later.
• When NIC is ready for GO science - visits will be pulled
forward when possible.
• WFC3 “hard” science will soon be enabled.
D. Adler
TIPS – LRP – 17 September 2009
5
…before it gets better
• Early results: weekly orbit counts are encouraging
• first few post-SMOV flight calendars were packed:
SMS week
SMOV orbits
Sci/Cal orbits
Total
Aug 31
32
63
95
Sep 7
13
76
89
Sep 14
28
63
91
Sep 21
18
70
88
Caution with these early results:
• We’ve not yet been in a northpoint week.
• fewer SAA-hiders can schedule, subscription will be lower.
• Early-cycle subscription is always higher: greater visit
selection; highly-flexible visits are still available.
If high-subscription trend continues:
• We can pull visits in the tail earlier.
• Will evaluate after northpoint weeks are scheduled.
D. Adler
TIPS – LRP – 17 September 2009
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