Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
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SWG - Tele-Conference Call - October 25, 2001

Attendance:

Band, David
Barbiellini, Guido
Caraveo, Patricia
Cominsky, Lynn
Dermer, Chuck
Dingus, Brenda
Johnson, Neil
Kniffen, Don
Lambros, Scott
Lichti, Giselher
Meegan, Chip
Michelson, Peter
Norris, Jay
Ormes, Jonathan
Pohl, Martin
Ritz, Steve
Thompson, David
Thorsett, Steve
Turner, Kathy

Guest:

Stoneking, Eric

Minutes:

Agenda was re-arranged to accommodate people that had to leave early.

Peter Michelson - LAT Report:
* Getting ready for the Baseline and PDR review which will take place January 7-11, 2002.
* Finalizing all agreements with the agencies and with international partners.

Patrizia reported that the president of ASI is retiring in November and there is no one to take his place; therefore, there is no one who can sign the agreement. Nanni Bignami may have to sign an interim agreement.

Don Kniffin - HQ:
*MOU is in the Chief Counsel's Office. It's been there about a week or so. Steve Horowitz and Don have a meeting with them this afternoon. They will go over the comments and concerns and hopefully reach an agreement by the time the meeting is over.
After the Chief Counsel's office signs, then it goes to Code I for their signature. With all the conversations that have taken place with Code I, there should be no problem with them signing the agreement.
* JOG (Joint Oversite Group) meeting on Friday, tomorrow. Peter has been asked to give an update on GLAST. The committee people will be introduced to each other.
* International Agreements. As stated before, the Italian agreement has been delayed. The French are waiting for their review - equivalent to the PDR- this December. The Germans are hoping to have their agreement signed by the end of the year.

Patrizia wanted to know about the other agreement. Don thought the Italians had the draft and were working on it. Patrizia thought it was back at NASA HQ. Don will check on it and let Nanni Bignami know where it stands.

Chip asked about the GBM agreement - Don responded that it is ready for signature here and then it will go to Germany for their signature.

Chip asked Peter if Peter was sending a representative to the GBM team meeting November 13-14. Chip will send Peter an agenda and information and Peter will talk to his people about it. If Neil Gehrels goes, then he can be the representative from the LAT team.

Kathy Turner - DOE:
* Tim Toohig passed away and now Kathy will be the D.O.E. representative to GLAST.
* JOG meeting tomorrow. Joint DOE and NASA meeting. It will be a meeting for the group to get to know each other. Peter, Scott, Don will be attending.
* Working on the PDR Baseline review agenda.
* MOU - Lawyers said it was poorly written, but basically has been cleared by DOE.
* Budget - there is no budget yet. But do not expect any change in the dollars figures that were submitted.

Are there any threats to the NASA budgets due to the events of 9/11? Don responded by saying that so far there has been no indication of any problems.

Steve Ritz thanked Don, Kathy and Steve Horowitz for all the work they have done on the agreements. The work was appreciated.

Lynn to Kathy regarding press releases: Lynn and Kathy will meeting and discuss the procedure for this. Lynn will draft a press release plan and disseminate to Don and Kathy and everyone else that needs to be involved. Will discuss and draft a final procedure that will be followed. Everyone should understand that press releases should be sent out as quickly as possible.

Patrizia Caraveo - Italy:
* Concerned about the management of the Stanford LAT website. It has not been updated lately. She is looking for a current list of the LAT people to include in her request for funding.
* Secondly is concerned about building a website for meeting presentations.

Peter responded that they have planned to consolidate the 2 websites, one at SLAC the other on campus, but they just haven't gotten around to it. Jonathan reminded us that this is a LAT issue and that the presentations should not be on the main GLAST project site. A general remark was made that there seems to be too many sites - they need to be consolidated.

International Reports:

Italy - Guido: Is in the process of buying the silicon detectors.

Germany - Giselher: They have selected their contractor for Phase 2. Will start in January because of budget matters. Hopefully, the company representative will attend the team meeting in November in Huntsville. And hopefully, the agreement will be signed by the end of the year.

Scott Lambros - Project Status:
Downlink Issue/Concern:
* 150 megabits per second to send to Malindi. Using X-band. Earth 150 megabits - for Space Science missions the limit is much less: 10-20 megabits per seconds.
* Downlink more than twice a day - maybe 5-6 times a day.
* Can also go to a different band - KA band. This would be another possibility. It would cost more to put this equipment on the spacecraft. Dollar amount not quoted.
* Waiver is needed for somewhat more than first X-band allocation. This has to go through the international committee and will take too much time.
* There are 2 contacts per day in the operations plan. What data volume can be transmitted at 10-20 megabits? Factor of 3 off from what is currently planned.
* Negative aspect - for more contacts, more money, more scheduling is needed. Can do 6-7 contacts with Malindi.
* The Italians were just informed about this so don't have comments. Patrizia will ask the contractor if Malindi can handle the higher band width.
Re-Entry Analysis:
* Issue: do we need propulsion system on spacecraft for purpose of re-entry?
* Studying the issue of how much -hardware will make it to the ground or hit something.
* If the study shows that 8 sq. meters of junk will hit, then the propulsion system is needed.. Using the LAT, where 6000 sq. meters of junk will make it to the ground. It's light stuff (e.g., converter foils) but working to see if this can be within the requirements.
* If there is no propulsion system, then no need to worry if it will fail.
* Ed Weiler will make the final determination. Don stated that Ed does not like the 8 square meter requirement. If the instrument can be brought down, then it needs to be brought back. Don would like some charts to show the pros & cons of the testing.

Spacecraft studies are due in November. 2 companies are funded: TRW and Lockheed. The third, Spectrum Astro, is doing an independent study with their own funds.

Cost Driven - are looking at science requirements and then will bring back to the committee.

David Band - Science Support Center (SSC)
* Was introduced to the SWG.. The SSC is up and running. Are starting to staff. Have two scientists so far and a programmer (Bob Shaeffer). Cathie Meetre is no longer with the SSC. They have a programmer that has worked with EGRET data which is applicable to GLAST - TBA.
* Role of the SSC is somewhat in flux. Peter and Nick White are talking about this concern. David is working on a document dealing with the SSC.
* Working on the PDMP and as soon as the draft is complete, -will circulate to the SWG
* Brenda would like to be kept in the loop, and collaborate on producing, burst data products from EGRET and BATSE.
* Plans for a User's group meeting are in the works. But first the draft PDMP needs to be ready. And the Role of the SSC vs. the Instrument Support Center needs to be resolved before the committee can meet.
Steve Ritz -
Issue - Spacecraft Accommodation Study.
* Data downlink - In the Ops Concept, we state that an autonomous repoint won't occur during a data downlink or when a data downlink is imminent, but "imminent" is not defined.
* "Imminent" should be shorter than the nominal 5 hours burst observation time.
* Proposed defining a "Minimum Useful Time" parameter for the repoint decision. If, after slewing, the time left for observation is less than this amount of time before the scheduled downlink, the slew should not occur until after the downlink is complete. Propose: Minimum Useful Time should be programmable, from 1 -- 300 minutes with a 1-minute precision.
* Aborting downlink - if target of opportunity (ToO), done from ground command only.
* If running in mode - 2 targets to look at. How do you get from one to the other - slew slowing to optional edge of view, quickly to other target, then slowly slew again.
* Eric (see viewgraphs) is writing spec that vendors can follow. What science wants needs to be conveyed to the engineers so it can be worked on. Will send copies around but needs input by December. Will discuss at December sit-down meeting.
* Jonathan stated that GLAST is not a pointed instrument , it's a survey instrument. Survey instrument with a wide field of view. It's a scanning instrument - baseline scanning.
* Suggestions taken under advisement.
* Do we need to have a control slew rate?
* What science requires pointed observations? Martin and others answered: pulsar observations, at least.

Chip Meegan - GBM -
Contractor on board - Southwest Research will be building data unit.

Steve Thorsett -
Next face-to-face will present a pulsar workshop along with the SWG meeting. Hotel problems because of this FEMA regulation. But working on a deal with the Chaminade for $99.00 per night. Dave Thompson has come up with some support money for the pulsar presenters if they need it. Both Steve Thorsett and Jonathan will work on the agenda. Tuesday will be the workshop and the meeting will take place on Wednesday.

Lynn Cominsky - EPO
* Lynn has been nominated to the SEUS' and their meeting will be in FL at the same time as the SWG. Phil Plait will represent Lynn at the SWG meeting.
* Posters have been sent to several people for comments. A large one will be available at the December meeting.
* Five ambassadors were chosen. These people will help with lesson planning, presentations, etc.
* GLAST video - meeting with Mike Z., Jerry B., and Neil. New version will be sent to SWG for comments.
* Needs comments for the GLAST article to be published in the HEAD newsletter.

Adjourned

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