Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
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SWG - Tele-Conference Call - March 21, 2002

Attended:

David Band
Guido Barbiellini
Elliott Bloom
Patrizia Caraveo
Liz Citrin
Lynn Cominsky
Brenda Dingus
Niel Gehrels
Neil Johnson
Tune Kamae
Don Kniffen
Giselher Lichti
Chip Meegan
Jonathan Ormes
Martin Pohl
Steve Ritz
Stephen Torsett

Guest:

Ronaldo

Welcome and opening remarks by Neil Gehrels who chaired the meeting for Jonathan.

Don Kniffen - HQ

  1. The first official meeting of the JOG was held last Friday, 3/15. Good meeting, good rapport. Ground rules were established. Question regarding the French participation and at what level of participation was discussed.
  2. Foreign agreements:
    • The German agreement is close to being signed. The very last version was sent from NASA to DLR. If approved by DLR, it will be ready for signatures.
    • The French agreement was finalized on our side, then the French had major problems. Peter will try to set up a meeting with them to address concerns and to let them know of our support. Peter suggested sending letters to CNES, and prepared them. Code I stated that NASA could not send this letter because we cannot tell other countries how to spend their money. But D.O.E. did send their letter.
    • What is the status of the French funding? Don responded by saying that the French had a meeting earlier this month where they stated they have no money, so they could not go on with GLAST participation. The decision is not final. They have full funding of the current effort that is funding for engineering for the calorimeter. NASA and DOE are fully committed to GLAST. Anne Kinney talked with her counterpart in France. The French are having their critical meeting today.
    • The Italian agreement is just about finalized and then it will be ready to send to Italy.
  3. User's Group:
    Hasn't done much because the urgency seemed to have diminished. The User's Group should have a look at the PDMP before it is baselined. There is no schedule forbaseline. David Band's concern is the ground system communication with the satellite. He would like some input from the User's Group. The requirement for the NAR isto have a draft version of the PDMP. The User's Group should look at it before it is baselined AND before the NAR. Don will work on this in the next couple weeks.

Lynn Cominsky - EPO:

  1. The new GLAST poster was sent out to the SWG members.
  2. Posters are part of a kit that is designed for High School teachers. These kits will be distributed at the next teachers conference. It's now part of "Seeing and Exploring the Universe".
  3. Playing cards were made up for middle school kids.
  4. Final version of the GLAST video is out. It's 7 minutes long. Neil is having 3000 CD's made.
  5. Lynn is meeting with Tom Lucas at Stanford this afternoon regarding the TV show.

David Band - SSC:

  1. There will be an SSC person at the GBM and the LAT IOCs.
  2. Have been working with Stanford on data base schemes.
  3. Establishing a Software Working Group - had a telecon last week. Will have sub groups working in different areas.
  4. Mirror sites: with Italians. Still haven't decided how the transfer of data to the mirror sites will occur. Possibly should take data at the same time the SSC does. Would like to set up model.
  5. Pulsar Data Base - Stephen to head up the effort - will be getting astronomers to work with him at a conference this summer. Listing the pulsars to monitor is the main job along with setting up the structure. Will locate at the SSC. Stephen is co-organizing a pulsar workshop in Crete this Aug. There will be discussion on the issues raised at the Dec. SWG meeting. At the end of the summer will know what can be done without many resources.

Foreign Partners:

  • Italy - Guido/Patrizia - Little concern about the funding. They are still working on the ASI reorganization. Jonathan asked if we should send letters of support. A: now is not the time, but Patrizia will ask again. Hard to say when the funding decision will be made. No change in the Malindi ground station position. Malindi may be re-opened as a launch site, but this will not effect GLAST.
  • Germany - Giselher - has received the agreement and it looks good. Has been forwarded and is now in the process of being signed. The money for Phase B is there and available. The contractor was selected 3 months ago. MPE is now in the middle of Phase B.
  • France - Isabelle was unable to participate in telecon.

Liz Citrin - Project Manager:

  1. Personnel changes:
    The LAT Instrument Manager - Bernie Graf
    Deputy - Al Vernacchio
    and Systems Lead - John Deily
  2. Spacecraft procurement - have released the draft RFO to industry and received responses. The final RFO is to be released at the end of April. Selection to take place in June. It is a fixed price contract.
  3. Technical issue - since French problems surfaced, have made a contigency effort to keep engineeringmodel on schedule.
  4. Met with Malindi representative last week and marked up some parts of the agreement. Changed "2 passes per day" to read "support instrument". Still working on the 6 meter antenna with Malindi - 15 megabits per second, 5 passes per day. To insure not loosing data, will have backup station and the best so far is the US Net station in Hawaii. At a lower altitude - still can do the 5 passes per day, just a little slower.
  5. Orbital Debris: Baselining a de-orbit system.
  6. GBM/PDR is coming up. Liz and the team will attend.

LAT Report - Since Peter was unavailable, Tune reported

  1. There will be a delta baseline review, possibly mid-June.
  2. Just completed a 2-day meeting.
  3. Agreements progressing well.
  4. Working on the WBS
  5. Internal review scheduled for mid-April. SLAC is the host laboratory for the LAT, so the head of the lab wants to know what is going on with the project.

Chip Meegan - GBM:

  1. GBM contractor is Southwest Research Institute.
  2. PDR will be held April 9-11.
  3. GRB working group - the draft charter was sent out via e-mail. Will add the statement "support of SSC" to the charter.
  4. Jay is heading a team on GRB science for the LAT.
  5. Eric Anders looking into "Burst Alert". Is software person and has volunteered to put down on paper what will happen so everyone can look at it.
  6. Need a list of all the different working groups within the GLAST. Neil Gehrels took this on as an ACTION item.

ACTION ITEMS from January telecon:

  1. Steve Ritz - fixed antenna item - problem solved.
  2. Peter - characteristics of LAT on website - STILL OPEN. LAT-IOC/SSC group has been addressed.
  3. Chip and Peter - pre-flight calibration plan. Data at the SSC. David will look into this since the HEASARC is doing this.
  4. Blazars - ground based telescope - Pennypacker wrote a NSF proposal but final decision has not been made yet. Watching proposal with interest.
  5. Jonathan - Transient - review impact of 5 sigma in the definition of a transient. - STILL OPEN.
  6. SSC at GBM and LAT sites - has been closed.
  7. PDMP - has been done.
  8. Pulsar timing solution - pulsar working group is taking care of this. Nicki Amico was interested in this project, Patrizia will ask him again. Stephen will contact him directly.
  9. Steve Ritz - planning all-sky survey - spacecraft rocking - prior to launch. STILL OPEN.
  10. Legacy program - Neil Gehrels e-mailed program outlines to Jonathan. This is not what Peter thought it was. This will be an agenda item for the next SWG meeting.
  11. Don Kniffen - Define legal status of P.I. regarding data rights. STILL OPEN.

Face-to-Face SWG in Huntsville:

  1. Working with the Tom Bevill Center for a block of rooms - Cost will be $54.00 per night. In walking distance of the meeting area.
  2. 10 speakers already have committed to the W/S
  3. Meeting dates, September 12-13, 2002
  4. Think about the possibility of the Spring SWG meeting being held in Italy.

Adjourned

OPEN ACTION ITEMS:

  1. Peter - characteristics of LAT on website.
  2. Chip and Peter - pre-flight calibration plan. Data at the SSC. David will look into this since the HEASARC is doing this.
  3. Jonathan - Transient - review impact of 5 sigma in the definition of a transient.
  4. Steve Ritz - planning all-sky survey - spacecraft rocking - prior to launch.
  5. Legacy program -This will be an agenda item for the next SWG meeting.
  6. Don Kniffen - Define legal status of P.I. regarding data rights.
  7. Don - User's Committee.
  8. Stephen - Pulsar Data Base Group.
  9. Neil Gehrels - list different working groups in GLAST.