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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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8 APRIL 2005—GRAVITY PROBE B MISSIONUPDATEMission Elapsed Time: 353 days (50 weeks/11.57 months)Science Data Collection: 224 days (32 weeks/7.34 months)Current Orbit #: 5,210 as of 4:00 PM PSTSpacecraft General Health: GoodRoll Rate: Normal at 0.7742 rpm (77.5 seconds per revolution)Dewar Temperature: 1.82 kelvin, holding steadyCommand & Data Handling (CDH): B-side (backup) computer incontrol, Multi-bit errors (MBE): 0, Single-bit errors (SBE): 7 (dailyaverage)1 APRIL 2005—GRAVITY PROBE B MISSIONUPDATEMission Elapsed Time: 346 days (49 weeks/11.50 months)Science Data Collection: 217 days (31 weeks/7.11 months)Current Orbit #: 5,10 as of 4:00 PM PSTSpacecraft General Health: GoodRoll Rate: Normal at 0.7742 rpm (77.5 seconds per revolution)Dewar Temperature: 1.82 kelvin, holding steadyCommand & Data Handling (CDH): B-side (backup) computer incontrol, Multi-bit errors (MBE): 1 (on 3/26), Single-bit errors (SBE): 9(daily average)Last Saturday, the Gyro Suspension (GSS) computer for gyro #4reported a multi-bit error (MBE). Upon investigation of this MBE, theGSS team determined that it was in a memory location that wouldsoon be accessed by a program command sequence. To avert thecomputer reboot problems that the spacecraft has been experiencingfor the past three weeks, the team sent commands to the flightcomputer halting the mission timeline. Then, as described in lastweek's Mission News, computer specialists used the Integrated TestFacility (ITF) simulator at Lockheed Martin to determine the correctvalue for the afflicted memory location and uploaded a patch to repairthat location. After this repair, the team sent a revised commandtimeline to the GSS computer and resumed normal operations.Because of the team's intervention, the guide star lock was not lost andthe spacecraft remained in drag-free flight throughout this period.Also, gyro #4 remained digitally suspended in science (data collection)mode. Complete recovery from this MBE took only a few hours,thanks to the diligence of the team.Investigations into the root causes of the recent spate of MBEssuggests the possibility that the scrub routine which is checking thememory cells of the on-board Command & Control ComputerAssembly (CCCA) could trigger a safemode response on a single MBEif that error occurs in certain locations. As a result, the team has reprogrammedthe safemode response for the MBE test to automaticallystop the mission timeline, rather than rebooting the computer.Also this past week, the <strong>GP</strong>-B team continued work on the Attitudeand Translation Control system (ATC) and the telescope detectors.The purpose of these adjustments is to enable the spacecraft to remainunder control of the science gyros (rather than the navigation controlgyros) in all orbits through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region.For a number of weeks now, the spacecraft has been experiencingdegraded attitude performance in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA)region. As a short-term fix for this problem, we have beencommanding the Attitude and Translation Control system (ATC) toswitch from the science telescope to the spacecraft's navigationalgyroscopes for controlling the spacecraft's attitude while in the SAAregion. This has increased the spacecraft's stability in the SAA, butsince we only use relativity data collected when the science telescope isin control of the ATC, we have effectively been losing science data inthose orbits where the spacecraft passes through the SAA undernavigational gyro control.Over these past few weeks, our Attitude and Translation Control(ATC) group has been working very hard to fine tune the ATC systemso that the science telescope can remain in control of the spacecraft'sattitude in the SAA region. Three weeks ago, we made some progresson this issue by shrinking our defined boundaries of the SAA region,thus reducing the number of orbits affected. Two weeks ago, the ATCgroup made further progress by changing the ATC gain settings(similar to adjusting the volume control on a radio). Finally, this pastweek, the ATC group adjusted the gain settings on the TelescopeReadout Electronics (TRE). This past week's adjustments, incombination with those previously made, have mitigated this issue.The science telescope is now able to remain locked on the guide star inall passes through the SAA, and we are once again collecting sciencedata in all orbits.Also this past week, we started making detailed plans for the postscienceinstrument re-calibration phase, estimated to begin early inJuly.15 APRIL 2005—GRAVITY PROBE B MISSIONUPDATEMission Elapsed Time: 360 days (51 weeks/11.80 months)Science Data Collection: 231 days (33 weeks/7.57 months)Current Orbit #: 5,316 as of 9:00 PM PSTSpacecraft General Health: GoodRoll Rate: Normal at 0.7742 rpm (77.5 seconds per revolution)Dewar Temperature: 1.82 kelvin, holding steady500 March 2007 Appendix C — Weekly Chronicle of the <strong>GP</strong>-B Mission

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