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

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

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Figure 13-19. ECU heater activity during the Science Phase, from January-May 200513.1.7 ECU transmission of Spacecraft NoiseNoise coupling has been an ongoing issue with the ECU, both prior to launch and during flight. Following is asummary of this issue.13.1.7.1 Pre-Launch ECU Noise CouplingPrior to launch, <strong>GP</strong>-B processed DR446 that addressed a noise-coupling path between the ECU and the SREsubsystems. Ultimately, this lead to a launch delay from December 2003 to April 2004 to replace a faulty powersupply in the ECU. However, the coupling path between the ECU and the SRE that allowed the detection of thefaulty ECU power supply was not able to be isolated and repaired during this time, and it was deemedacceptable for the performance of the science instrument.13.1.7.2 ECU Noise Coupling On OrbitOnce on orbit, we found that the ECU would occasionally generate coherent noise at a slowly changingfrequency that would couple to the SQUID outputs—primarily to SQUID#1. SQUID#1 and SQUID#3 haveconsistently exhibited a greater sensitivity to external sources of EMI due to the relatively long cables from thetop hat to the forward SRE. Similar noise was observed on the SQUID#1 outputs in early 2005, and it wasdecided then that the ECU could be turned off for extended periods to eliminate this noise source from theSQUID data. The ECU was turned off on April 28, 2005 and was occasionally turned on for system monitoringand heat pulse measurements to the end of helium point on September 29, 2005. Following the depletion ofhelium, the ECU was turned back on permanently.The effect of this coupled noise source on the science data is still to be determined in the post-mission sciencedata analysis effort, but at this time the effect is expected to be small to insignificant.366 March 2007 Chapter 13 — Other Payload Subsystems Analyses

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