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GP-B Post-Flight Analysis—Final Report - Gravity Probe B - Stanford ...

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Table 4-6. Features & benefits of Web deliveryWeb Delivery — Features and BenefitsAutomationThis software automated countless hours of photocopying and paper wrangling.Instant AccessProducts are available throughout the day in draft form so our collaborators canexamine them before it’s too late.Version Control All versions of the products are available to our customers.Global AccessProducts are available to all our customers around the world via a secure web site.Digital Formats By providing our products in digital form (rather than paper), our customers can(and have!) write tools to post-process the data.4.2.3 Critical Factor: FlexibilityHaving solved the problem of efficient product generation, the second challenge was how to adapt to theoperational reality of planning a spacecraft, in which plans are made, scrapped, re-formed, and updated asinformation becomes available. The challenge here was planning for the next day’s load, the next week’sschedule, and trying to forecast weeks of schedule in advance, as well!4.2.3.1 On-Orbit Operations: Change is ConstantDuring early IOC, Mission Planning was required to re-implement its operations concept due to the demandson daily workflow, and problem mitigation strategies implemented by mission managers. The following tablehighlights the changes we made to adapt our concept to the reality of on-orbit operations:Table 4-7. Re-inventing the mission operations conceptRe-Inventing the Operations ConceptFrom Baseline toSequence LibraryFrom Change Control toMarkupFWD Antenna AnomalyMitigationExtensive CoverageRequirementsCoverage RebuildingAs the 40-day baseline timeline experienced early deviations, Mission Planningtransformed it into a “sequence library” which could be used in any day’s load, withminor customization.As we moved into the sequence library model, the highly structured change controlprocess designed to capture slight deviations no longer made sense. Weimplemented a “markup” model using Adobe Acrobat, which was much more suitablefor the kinds of changes we experienced.The anomaly which resulted in a reduced-efficiency forward spacecraft antennaresulted in significant challenge to operations. Mission Planning had already laid thegroundwork for solving this problem in the timeline, and was ready when operationsneeded the help!The coverage requirements from engineering and scientists far exceeded missionspecifications. But with tools like TISI in place, Mission Planning was able to absorb theadditional burden easily.Mission Planning was required to rebuild already-build spacecraft timelinesconstituting weeks of time, on many occasions. Mission needs were impossible topredict, and we needed to not only work on the day’s loads, but also consistentlyrework and replan for the future.4.2.3.2 Commitment to the MissionMission Planning is proud of its performance during IOC, and nothing quite communicates this as well as thechart showing just how many hours we spent building our loads and schedules every day. The followingdiagram’s vertical bars illustrate the number of hours our planners stayed late to get the job done during theheavy load days of IOC:104 March 2007 Chapter 4 — <strong>GP</strong>-B On Orbit

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