Chandra Users’ Committee
CXC Manager’s Status Report
For the period April 09 – October 09
Edward Mattison
CXC Deputy Manager
29 October 2009
Topics
• Program Level Status
– Program Management
– Spacecraft
– Science Instruments and Calibration
–
–
–
–
Mission Planning
OCC
Data Processing
CXCDS
– Chandra Director’s Office
– Education and Public Outreach
• Mission Metrics
• Chandra Grant Awards
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Top Level Summary
• Spacecraft and instruments are performing superbly
• The CXC contract extension for up to 10 additional
years and $573M is expected to be signed in midNovember
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Program Level Status – Program Management
• Budget
– The CXC’s budget is on track with the FY09 Operating Plan
• CXC contract extension
– SAO submitted (in July) the requested proposal to extend the CXC
contract for up to 10 years
– We are currently working with MSFC and subcontractors to resolve audit
questions and to deal with NGST rate changes that resulted from NGST’s
corporate reorganization
– Expect signed contract extension in mid-November
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Program Level Status – Program Management
• Facilities
– SAO and NGST studied the feasibility of moving the OCC from Kendall
Square to Cambridge Discovery Park, to save ~$1M/yr
– Produced detailed plan and schedule
– After considering benefits vs. risk, MSFC declined to approved the move
• Reviews and Conferences
–
–
–
–
Peer Review (6/22/09)
Supernova Remnant workshop (7/8/09)
Quarterly review (9/2/09)
Calibration review (9/21/09)
– Chandra’s First Decade of Discovery (9/22-25/09)
– Einstein Fellows Symposium (10/27/09)
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Program Level Status – CXC Organization
MSFC Space Systems Programs & Projects Office
Hefner
Chandra X-ray Center Program Office
Tananbaum
Canizares (MIT)
Brissenden
Education & Outreach
Lestition
Director's Office
Wilkes
Grants Award Section
Sozanski
Flight Operations Team
Hurley
Online Operations
Mission Planning & Testing
Spacecraft Engineering
Flight Software
Factory Support Team
29 October 2009
OCC Operations
Eagan
Science
Tananbaum
Facility Systems Team
Integration & Ground
S/W Maintenance
Ground Ops Team
Ops. Science Support
Calibration
Mission Planning
Sci. Data Sys. Planning
IPI Teams
CXC Status Report/CUC
Science Data System
Fabbiano
Systems Engineering
Holmes
Hardware & Systems
Software Development
Test
Archive Operations
Data Processing Operations
Page 6
Program Level Status – Operations
• Spacecraft
– Continues to operate extremely well overall
– Nominal passages through summer eclipse season
• Science Instruments
– Instruments are operating extremely well
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Program Level Status – Operations
• Anomalies
– Momentum Unloading Propulsion System (MUPS) pressure drop
• Propellant pressure reading decreased abruptly 7/19
• Cause: Pressure transducer operates incorrectly
• Impact: Benign; Demonstrated CXC’s skill in handling anomaly situation
– Grating status switch operates unexpectedly
• HETG move flag set to ‘failed’ 7/7/09 (grating move was okay)
• Cause: Previously-failed microswitch unexpectedly came to life
• Impact: Benign; Updated software to ignore switch state
– Incorrect command sequence uploaded
• Cause: Operator error 8/28
• Impact: Benign (but could have led to safing action if not identified); Updated
procedures to prevent recurrence
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Program Level Status – Operations
• Mission Planning: Load-interrupting TOOs
– No load-interrupting TOOs during this period
– Several loads were replanned to respond to anomalous conditions
• Data Processing
– Automatic processing is current; mean time from end of observation to
delivery to user remains at about one day
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Program Level Status – Operations
• CXC Data System Releases
Version
Date
Main contents
DS 7.6.11.13
DS 8.0
DS 8.1
CIAO 4.1.2
CAT 3.1.2
4/24
7/14
9/16
4/20
5/21
CfP11 proposal review support
Migrate operations to Solaris 10
Migrate CDO, mission planning operations to Linux
Port to Solaris 10; release Level 3 tools
CSCview, novice user fixes, VO cone search
GoogleEarth1.0 6/26
CAT 3.1.4
9/18
Web interface to CSC field of view & images
VO cone search verbosity fix
CSC = Chandra Source Catalog
VO = Virtual Observatory
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Program Level Status – Operations
• Calibration Database (CalDB) Releases
– CalDB 4.1.3
– CalDB 4.1.4
7/7
9/17
ACIS T-gain epoch 37
ACIS T-gain epoch 38
• GO and Fellows Program, CXC Director’s Office
– GO peer review 6/22; 668 proposals submitted, 207 approved
– Einstein Fellows call for proposal posted; proposals due 11/5
– Grant issuance is current; average time to award < 3 weeks
• Education and Public Outreach
– CXC’s “Beautiful Universe” HD podcast series won the Communicator
Award of Excellence, the professional peer-judged award by the same
group that oversees the Webbys
– “From Earth to the Universe, ” the International Year of Astronomy
exhibit developed by the CXC’s EPO group, has been exhibited in over
200 locations in 65 countries, including close to 40 installations in a
variety of settings in the US. See http://www.fromearthtotheuniverse.org.
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Mission Metrics
MUPS Fuel Usage
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Mission Metrics
Thruster Warm Starts
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Mission Metrics
Observing Efficiency
0.90
0.85
0.80
Processed Observing Efficiency
0.75
0.70
0.65
0.60
0.55
0.50
0.45
0.40
Oct-08
Nov-08
29 October 2009
Dec-08
Jan-09
Feb-09
Mar-09
Apr-09
May-09
CXC Status Report/CUC
Jun-09
Jul-09
Aug-09
Sep-09
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Data Delivery Effectiveness
As of 10/8/09
As of middle of following month
Month
Number
of Obs
Days to Data Delivery
Min
Avg
Max
Number
Deliv
Number
Outstanding
Number
Deliv
Number
Outstanding
Oct-08
62
0
1
12
62
0
62
0
Nov-08
73
0
1
17
73
0
73
0
Dec-08
68
0
2
13
68
0
68
0
Jan-09
87
0
1
14
86
1
87
0
Feb-09
160
0
1
5
160
0
160
0
Mar-09
76
0
1
12
76
0
77
0
Apr-09
53
0
1
5
53
0
53
0
May-09
62
0
1
5
62
0
62
0
Jun-09
61
0
1
7
61
0
61
0
Jul-09
72
0
1
9
72
0
72
0
Aug-09
62
0
1
19
62
0
62
0
Sep-09
72
0
1
11
72
0
72
0
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Comments
Page 15
Grant Award Effectiveness
Month
of Data
Delivery
Federal
Grants
(1,3)
SAO Grants (2)
As of middle of following month
As of 10/8/09
Non-Federal
Grants (3)
No. Grants
Awarded
No.
Outstanding
Avg days to
award (4)
No.
Grants
Awarded
No.
Outstanding
Oct-08
0
8
5
3
19
8
0
Nov-08
0
18
1
17
5
18
0
Dec-08
0
21
21
0
18
21
0
Jan-09
5
53
42
11
22
53
0
Feb-09
1
16
13
3
15
16
0
Mar-09
1
15
3
12
13
15
0
Apr-09
2
13
11
2
14
13
0
May-09
0
8
5
3
10
8
0
Jun-09
0
17
14
3
12
17
0
Jul-09
0
17
7
10
13
17
0
Aug-09
0
4
4
0
10
4
0
Sep-09
1
5
4
1
8
4
1
Outstanding Awards
Proposal no, Comments
10500606
(1)(1) Grants awarded to scientists at Federal institutions as interagency transfers through MSFC.
(2)(2) Grants awarded to scientists at non-Federal institutions through SAO Contracts and Grants Department.
(3)(3) Number of grants eligible for award, for which data were delivered to the observer in the month.
(4)(4) Average days from data delivery to grant award to observer.
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