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City,
Kansas and Cleveland, Ohio), the hardy travelers made it
to their destination in 3 short days. It would be nice to
add an amusing anecdote at this point, but it was a wonderfully
uneventful road trip with everyone and everything arriving
safely.
The XPS, TIM, and SOLSTICE instruments were carefully unloaded
off the truck in their special vibration and shock resistant
metal containers. The instrument module was moved into the
clean room area at Orbital, carefully unpacked, units powered
up, and the integration and testing phase began.
SIM remained at LASP for a few more weeks to refurbish some
parts, and then to be calibrated and tested. As soon as
SIM arrived at Orbital the first week in April, the instrument
alignment process began. The alignment required that pointing
of only one of the five instruments be slightly adjusted.
Throughout early April, parts issues required that a number
of electronic boxes be moved back and forth between Orbital
and LASP for rework, but by the end of April everything
was back at Orbital and ready for Spacecraft Test. The SORCE
MU and Flight Software Team loaded a new flight code in
mid-April, and the code verification test passed with flying
colors. On April 16th, the SORCE instrument module was successfully
mated to the spacecraft bus.
The
Instrument Module is mated to the Spacecraft.
At
this point, the initial alignments for the SORCE spacecraft
and instruments are complete, and the MAESTRO to OASIS conversion
continues smoothly. The instruments are currently undergoing
Comprehensive Performance Testing (CPT), and will be for
the next month.
On May 7th, the SORCE Fault Detection and Correction (FDC)
Review team met. They reviewed the fault detection
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and
correction implemented for the SORCE observatory. The Pre-Environmental
Readiness Review (PERR) is tentatively scheduled for May 30.
This review will focus on making sure that the spacecraft
is ready to survive the actual launch and post launch environment.
Different tests include vibration, EMI/EMC measurement, mass
properties, pyroshock separation system, thermal vacuum, and
acoustics.
There will be five months of additional testing at Orbital
before the payload and launch vehicle are moved to the Kennedy
Space Center (KSC). Once at KSC, the two will be mated and
further testing done. The launch is currently set for November
30.
Once the SORCE satellite is launched from the Pegasus, LASP
is preparing to operate and obtain data from the SORCE instruments
for a period of 5 years (6 year goal). Within 48 hours of
data capture, all science data with the associated instrument
and spacecraft engineering data will be processed and available
to mission scientists. Within 3 months of data acquisition,
the final release of all validated science data including
corrections for changes in instrument performance will be
provided to the scientific community.
SORCE
Science Team News
Congratulations to Greg Kopp who was recently appointed
as a SORCE Co-Investigator.
A SORCE Science Working Group Meeting was held at NIST in
Gaithersburg, Maryland, February 26 to 28. The meeting's
agenda concentrated on the calibration and characterization
of the SORCE instruments. SORCE would like to recognize
and thank everyone for all the assistance SORCE has received
from NIST personnel (Gaithersburg and Boulder) and from
Goddard personnel. Upcoming
Meetings
SORCE scientists plan to present
papers or attend the following 2002 meetings:
NEWRAD, May 20-24, Gaithersburg, MD May 20-24, 2002
AGU Spring Meeting, May 28-31, Washington, DC May 28-31,
2002
AAS / SPD, June 2-6, Albuquerque, NM
NIST Workshop on Satellite Instrument Calibration, June
25-28, Gaithersburg, MD
SORCE Science Working Group, July 17-19, Steamboat Springs,
CO
COSPAR, October 10-19, Houston, TX
Steamboat Springs, CO July 17-19, 2002
To submit information to this newsletter,
please contact:
vanessa.george@lasp.colorado.edu
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