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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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On Tuesday afternoon (19-April), <strong>GP</strong>-B Principal Investigator,Francis Everitt, delivered a Physics Colloquium to a packedauditorium at <strong>Stanford</strong> entitled: “The <strong>Gravity</strong> <strong>Probe</strong> B <strong>Flight</strong> Mission:A <strong>Stanford</strong> Physics-Engineering Partnership”. In this lecture,Professor Everitt explained some of the finer points of <strong>GP</strong>-B's varioustechnologies, emphasizing in each case the interdisciplinarycollaborations required to produce these extraordinary technologicalinnovations.29 APRIL 2005—GRAVITY PROBE B MISSIONUPDATEMission Elapsed Time: 374 days (53 weeks/12.26 months)Science Data Collection: 245 days (35 weeks/8.03 months)Current Orbit #: 5,523 as of 5:00 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): 8 (dailyaverage)This past Tuesday, 26 April 2005, the <strong>GP</strong>-B dewar team ran anotherheat pulse meter test to get an update on the amount of liquid heliumremaining in the dewar. Their preliminary results suggest that we haveabout two weeks more helium than anticipated. Further analysis is inprocess, and if these results are correct, the helium will be depletedaround the end of August or beginning of September. This means thatwe will be able to continue collecting science data into the first twoweeks in July, before beginning a very important series of instrumentcalibration tests that must be completed before the helium runs out.Also this past week, we continued fine-tuning our SQUID readoutsystem, analyzing potential sources of noise. To this end, we turned offthe telescope dithering motion all day on Wednesday, 27 April 2005 todetermine its contribution to experimental noise.Likewise, for the same reason, on Thursday, we turned off theExperiment Control Unit (ECU) for several days. We are in theprocess of analyzing the results of these noise experiments, which maylead to further fine-tuning of various spacecraft systems.6 MAY 2005—GRAVITY PROBE B MISSION UPDATEMission Elapsed Time: 381 days (54 weeks/12.49 months)Science Data Collection: 252 days (36 weeks/8.26 months)Current Orbit #: 5,627 as of 5:00 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, Single-bit errors (SBE): 9 (dailyaverage)Further analysis of the results of the heat pulse test run on Tuesday, 26April 2005, to determine the amount of liquid helium remaining in thedewar, confirms the preliminary prediction that the helium in thedewar will be depleted in late August or early September. Based onthese results, the <strong>GP</strong>-B mission operations team is planning tocomplete readout calibrations, some of which can be done while weare still collecting science data, by the beginning of August. Gyrotorque calibrations, which cannot be done during the science phase ofthe mission because they involve placing small torques (forces) on thegyro rotors, will commence early in August and continue until thehelium runs out.Our telescope pointing and guide star capture times continue to beexcellent, thanks to recent fine-tuning of the spacecraft's Attitude andTranslation Control system (ATC) parameters. We have alsodetermined that we can reduce some noise in the SQUID ReadoutElectronics system (SRE) by turning off the Experiment Control Unit.However, we will now periodically power on the ECU for about 6hours in order to obtain certain readouts that require informationfrom the ECU.Finally, a memory location in the B-side (backup) flight computer thatis now controlling the spacecraft sustained a multi-bit error (MBE) lastSaturday, 30 April 2005. The memory location affected is not currentlybeing used. Following new procedures developed a few weeks ago,when we were experiencing an increased level of MBEs, our computeroperations team quickly uploaded a patch to correct the contents ofthe affected memory location.Also this past week, the <strong>GP</strong>-B Anomaly Review Board met todetermine whether or not to change the pre-programmed safemodetrigger and response to MBEs detected in the main flight computer.After a lengthy discussion, it was decided to change the safemodetrigger condition from 3 to 9 MBEs and the response actions from502 March 2007 Appendix C — Weekly Chronicle of the <strong>GP</strong>-B Mission

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