Chandra Users’ Committee
CXC Manager’s Status Report
For the period October 2014 – September 2015
Edward Mattison
CXC Deputy Manager
29 September 2015
Topics
• Program Management
• Mission Operations
– Spacecraft
– Science Instruments and Calibration
– Mission Planning
– Operations Control Center
• Science Operations
– CXC Data Systems
– Calibration
– Data Processing
• Chandra Director’s Office
– GO Program
– Einstein Program
• Education and Public Outreach
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Top Level Summary
• Spacecraft and instruments are performing superbly
– There are no known spacecraft limitations due to degradation, aging or
consumables that would prevent our meeting Level 1 requirements over the
course of a 25-year mission
• NASA exercised final option in current CXC contract
– Extended contract through September 2019
– NASA is working on a 10-year follow-on contract through 2029
• Staff
– Ralph Kraft appointed as PI of High Resolution Camera team
– Patrick Slane appointed as Assistant Director for Science (continues as
Mission Planning lead)
– Paul Plucinsky appointed as lead of Operations Science Support team
– Flight Directors: Greg Wright (MSFC) has qualified; Scott Wolk in training
CXC Status Report/CUC
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Top Level Summary
Response to 2014 Senior Review Committee Recommendations
Recommendation
Response
SR14-01. Develop major, focused scientific projects
building upon recent scientific successes. Solicit
community input for such key projects.
Conducted session on future Chandra science in 15
Years symposium (11/14). Invited chairs of last
Decadal Survey as panelists for open session. Will
use recommendations in CXC planning. Consulted
with CUC; analysis of proposal statistics and
balance in process.
Completion planned: 12/15/15
SR14-02. Maintain funding of General Observer
program at least at the current level.
Confirmed PPBE plan retains current levels of GO
funding, subject to continued funding level from HQ.
Completed: 8/15/14
SR14-03. Engage younger researchers in longrange planning.
Will utilize opportunities through the 15 Years, CUC,
peer review, Einstein Fellows program and senior
review proposals to actively involve early career
scientists. Input invited through Einstein Symp.
Completion planned: 12/15/15
SR14-04. Ensure orderly transfer to HEASARC of
data reduction and analysis software and science
data.
Develop plan for final calibration, processing and
transfer to the HEASARC. Plan to include
identification of software. Close action with
description of plan and schedule. Identified final
turn-over products required by CXC Project Data
Management Plan (DR-SE01) 4/3/15.
Completion planned: 12/15/15
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Top Level Summary
Response to Senior Review Committee Recommendations
Recommendation
Response
SR14-05. To reduce cost, engage senior engineers
from other NASA projects to review Chandra mission
operations and ground systems, with aim of
developing new ideas that may result in cost
efficiencies.
Convened a team with expertise in mission
operations from other missions to examine
Chandra’s present mission operations cost model
and discuss lessons learned and approaches to
maximize efficiency and minimize cost.
Review was held 27-28 May 2015. Responding to
committee’s recommendations
Completion planned: 9/1/15
SR14-06. Mitigate effects of flat budgets beyond
FY16, which would present significant challenges.
Work with HQ through the PPBE process to request
inflation in FY17 budget and beyond. Presented
budget, with request for inflation offset in FY17-20, to
PPBE17 review at NASA HQ 3/31/15.
Completed: 3/31/15
• Actions to be closed by submission of documents and information to MSFC and
presentation at CXC Quarterly Review
• Following concurrence by MSFC and HQ, the CXC program manager will maintain
for record and inclusion in the next Senior Review proposal
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Program Management
MSFC Space Systems Programs & Projects Office
Baggett (Prog Mgr)
Chandra X-ray Center Program Office
Wilkes (Director)
Canizares (MIT)
Juda/Aldcroft
Brissenden (Prog Mgr)
(Flt Dir)
Director’s Office
Wilkes
Public Communication
Lestition
Grants Award Section
Sozanski
Flight Operations
Team
Hurley
Online Operations
Mission Planning
Spacecraft Engineering
Flight Software
Factory Support Team
OCC Operations
Eagan
Systems Team
Integration & Ground
S/W Maintenance
Ground Ops Team
Tech. Support Team
Management &
Facilities
Science
Wilkes
Science Data System
Fabbiano
Ops Science Support
Hardware & Systems
Calibration
Software Development
& Maintenance
Archive Operations
Mission Planning
Instrument Teams
Sci. Data Syst. Planning
Systems Engineering
Holmes
Data Processing Operations
Operational Role
CXC Status Report/CUC
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Program Management
• Contract
– Contract currently runs through 30 Sept 2019
– We expect NASA to request a proposal for an extended follow-on contract
• Budget and Staffing
– The CXC’s budget and expenditures are in line with the PPBE-17 plan
– Current staffing profile is consistent with PPBE-17
– CXC is funded through 15 Nov 16; Einstein program through 31 Mar 16
• Other
– Complying with NASA travel restrictions, which have increased
administrative burden at CXC and MSFC
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Program Management
• CXC-organized Conferences and Reviews
– Chandra Users’ Committee meeting 23-24 Oct 14
– Einstein Fellows Symposium 28-29 Oct 14
– 15 Years of Science with Chandra symposium: 18-21 Nov 14
– Cycle 17 Peer Review 22-26 June 15
– Workshop: The Universe in High-resolution X-ray Spectra 1921 August 15
– Chandra Users’ Committee meeting 28-29 Sept 15
– Future: Einstein Fellows Symposium 28-29 Oct 15
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Mission Operations
• Spacecraft
– Continues to operate extremely well
– 4 radiation interruptions during period; 332 ks science time lost
– Transitioned to mixed-MUPS configuration for operational flexibility
– Patched CTU-A for Dwell Mode (for fast engineering data acquisition)
– Normal-Sun Mode on 1/6/15 due to IU-reset (180.6 ks science time lost)
– Safe mode on 9/21/15 due to attitude drifting outside of sun-position monitor limit.
No hardware problems. (131.9 ks science time lost)
• Science Instruments
– Instruments are operating extremely well
– ACIS processing unit spontaneously powered off on 1/11/15 (99.0 ks science time
lost); has happened 5 times during mission; thought to be single event upset
– Installed patch to Aspect Camera on-board processing, to mitigate acquisition failures
due to "multiple stars suspected" flag.
– ACA team is pursuing annealing of the CCD at 20C, and has carried out a
demonstration of the necessary operations activities.
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Spacecraft Subsystem Status
Subsystem functioning perfectly
Minor problem but subsystem meets all requirements
Moderate problem but manageable
Serious deficiency; mitigated
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Mission Operations
• Operations Control Center
– Smooth operations
– Installed and tested virtual OCCDS upgrades at backup OCC
• Mission Planning
– 14 load-interrupting TOOs during this period; increased number due to twoweek loads
– Observing efficiency during the period ~72%, near mission maximum but
declining due to orbit evolution
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Mission Operations
Flight & Ground teams maintained smooth operations through Boston snow storms
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Mission Operations – Observing Efficiency
Observing time has changed due to evolving orbit
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Mission Operations – Consumables
Momentum Unloading & Propulsion System (MUPS) Fuel Usage
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Mission Operations – Consumables
MUPS Thruster Warm Starts
A-side thrusters not being
used; in reserve
B-side thrusters have plenty
of margin
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Science Operations
• CXC Data System Releases
DS 10.3.1
DS 10.3.2
DS 10.3.3
DS 10.3.4
DS 10.4
DS 10.4.1
DS 10.4.2
12/5/14
12/16/14
1/15/15
4/29/15
6/2/15
7/8/15
9/23/15
P012 Telemetry template update
CfP17 Support
MTA upgrade for P012CIAO Data Analysis Releases
WebReports & cxcusers DB for CfP17
Annual DS release; complete CXCDS/SW Linux port
P013 telemetry upgrade
ACIS CC mode grating data processing
• CIAO Data Analysis Releases
CIAO 4.7B2 10/17/14 CIAO Beta 2
CIAO 4.7
12/17/14 CIAO Annual Data Analysis Release
Sherpa
4/20/15 Sherpa standalone release & WF definition
CIAO 4.8B 6/16/15 Internal Beta 1 release
CXC Status Report/CUC
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Science Operations
• Data Processing
– Automatic processing is current; mean time from end of
observation to delivery to user remains at about one day
• Calibration
Products released
Quarterly ACIS detector gain maps
ACIS-S1 low energy gainupdate
Annual HRC detector gain maps
HRC-I de-gap map update
HRC-I QE update
HRC-S QE and QE map updates
Updates to the extraction region and extracted count fraction in
LETG/HRC-S data
Products to be released by December 2014
ACIS contamination model update
ACIS blank sky background files for the period 2012-2015
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Science Operations
Data Delivery
As of middle of following month
Month
Number of
Obs
Days to Data Delivery
Min
Avg
Max
As of 9/11/15
Number
Deliv
Number
Outstanding
Number Deliv
Number
Outstanding
Sep-14
58
0
1
3
58
0
58
0
Oct-14
49
0
1
6
49
0
49
0
Nov-14
54
0
1
4
54
0
54
0
Dec-14
59
0
1
8
59
0
59
0
Jan-15
52
0
1
5
52
0
52
0
Feb-15
62
0
1
15
62
0
62
0
Mar-15
55
0
1
7
55
0
55
0
Apr-15
41
0
1
3
41
0
41
0
May-15
47
0
1
4
47
0
47
0
Jun-15
64
0
1
12
64
0
64
0
Jul-15
53
0
1
11
53
0
53
0
Aug-15
52
0
1
3
52
0
52
0
Avg delivery ~1 day from observation
CXC Status Report/CUC
Comments
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Grant Awards
SAO Grants (2)
Month of
Federal
Data
Grants
Delivery
(1,3)
Sep-14
Oct-14
Nov-14
Dec-14
Jan-15
Feb-15
Mar-15
Apr-15
May-15
Jun-15
Jul-15
Aug-15
1
0
1
0
0
2
2
1
0
0
3
0
As of the middle of following month
Non- No. Grants
No.
Avg days to
Federal Awarded Outstanding
award (4)
Grants (3)
11
4
7
4
73
14
15
7
11
10
13
7
10
4
5
2
49
12
11
7
11
8
13
7
1
0
2
2
24
2
4
0
0
2
0
0
11
6
9
8
57*
18
12
10
14
7
9
12
As of 9/15/15
No. Grants
Awarded
No. Outstanding
11
4
7
4
73
14
15
7
11
10
13
7
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Outstanding Awards
Proposal no, Comments
(1)
Grants awarded to scientists at Federal institutions as interagency transfers through MSFC.
Grants awarded to scientists at non-Federal institutions through SAO Contracts and Grants Department.
(3) Number of grants eligible for award, for which data were delivered to the observer in the month.
(4) Average days from data delivery to grant award does not include grants outstanding as of the middle of the following month.
* Approval from MSFC to issue grant funds was received after some observations were made and data were distributed, delaying issuance of awards.
(2)
Grants are typically awarded within ~2-3 weeks of observation
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Education and Public Outreach
• Press
– 12 science press releases, 2 non-science releases; 3 press release postings, 10 image
releases, resulting in > 2400 articles in print, web news and science web sites.
Monthly estimated audience in tens of millions.
• Web, Digital, Social Media
– Public web site attracts average of ~12.65 million hits per month
– Award-winning podcasts remain the #1 download with ~300k hits/month
– Social media platform continues to grow, with cumulative ~82k Twitter followers.
~255k Facebook likes, >1.5 million YouTube views, 33k Google+ followers
– New initiatives include iPad App architecture, 3D printing, “UltraHD”/hyperwall
video output (i.e. images at AAS/IAU), Pixinsight algorithm for smoothing undersampled data sets
• Public Outreach
– Launched NASA version of “Light: Behind the Bulb” exhibit to expand offerings
for International Year of Light. SPIE-sponsored exhibits in US at O’Hare and
Atlanta airports and internationally. NASA exhibit (including Braille panels)
touring US libraries, 1/mo. Over 600 venues total. See http://lightexhibit.org
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Education and Public Outreach (con’t)
• Education
– 19 presentations at NSTA, Boys & Girls Clubs, Youth Summer Reading,
etc.
– National Science Olympiad: supported national competition events and
coaches clinics reaching ~200,000 students on over 6000 teams. Filmed
legacy training videos for team coaches.
– On-line data analysis and software activities accepted for distribution by
NASA product review.
• Future of EPO
– EPO guidelines for FY16 still in flux
– Separation between public outreach and education not clear
– Submitted Co-I proposal to consortium proposal, with STScI as PI, in
response to NASA education Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN).
Winners not announced as of this date.
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