Chandra Users Committee CXC Managers Status Report For

Chandra Users’ Committee CXC Manager’s Status Report For the period October 2014 – September 2015 Edward Mattison CXC Deputy Manager 29 September 2015

Topics • Program Management • Mission Operations – – Spacecraft Science Instruments and Calibration Mission Planning Operations Control Center • Science Operations – CXC Data Systems – Calibration – Data Processing • Chandra Director’s Office – GO Program – Einstein Program • Education and Public Outreach CXC Status Report/CUC Page 2

Top Level Summary • Spacecraft and instruments are performing superbly – There are no known spacecraft limitations due to degradation, aging or consumables that would prevent our meeting Level 1 requirements over the course of a 25 -year mission • NASA exercised final option in current CXC contract – Extended contract through September 2019 – NASA is working on a 10 -year follow-on contract through 2029 • Staff – Ralph Kraft appointed as PI of High Resolution Camera team – Patrick Slane appointed as Assistant Director for Science (continues as Mission Planning lead) – Paul Plucinsky appointed as lead of Operations Science Support team – Flight Directors: Greg Wright (MSFC) has qualified; Scott Wolk in training CXC Status Report/CUC Page 3

Top Level Summary Response to 2014 Senior Review Committee Recommendations Recommendation Response SR 14 -01. Develop major, focused scientific projects building upon recent scientific successes. Solicit community input for such key projects. Conducted session on future Chandra science in 15 Years symposium (11/14). Invited chairs of last Decadal Survey as panelists for open session. Will use recommendations in CXC planning. Consulted with CUC; analysis of proposal statistics and balance in process. Completion planned: 12/15/15 SR 14 -02. Maintain funding of General Observer program at least at the current level. Confirmed PPBE plan retains current levels of GO funding, subject to continued funding level from HQ. Completed: 8/15/14 SR 14 -03. Engage younger researchers in longrange planning. Will utilize opportunities through the 15 Years, CUC, peer review, Einstein Fellows program and senior review proposals to actively involve early career scientists. Input invited through Einstein Symp. Completion planned: 12/15/15 SR 14 -04. Ensure orderly transfer to HEASARC of data reduction and analysis software and science data. Develop plan for final calibration, processing and transfer to the HEASARC. Plan to include identification of software. Close action with description of plan and schedule. Identified final turn-over products required by CXC Project Data Management Plan (DR-SE 01) 4/3/15. Completion planned: 12/15/15 CXC Status Report/CUC Page 4

Top Level Summary Response to Senior Review Committee Recommendations Recommendation Response SR 14 -05. To reduce cost, engage senior engineers from other NASA projects to review Chandra mission operations and ground systems, with aim of developing new ideas that may result in cost efficiencies. Convened a team with expertise in mission operations from other missions to examine Chandra’s present mission operations cost model and discuss lessons learned and approaches to maximize efficiency and minimize cost. Review was held 27 -28 May 2015. Responding to committee’s recommendations Completion planned: 9/1/15 SR 14 -06. Mitigate effects of flat budgets beyond FY 16, which would present significant challenges. Work with HQ through the PPBE process to request inflation in FY 17 budget and beyond. Presented budget, with request for inflation offset in FY 17 -20, to PPBE 17 review at NASA HQ 3/31/15. Completed: 3/31/15 • Actions to be closed by submission of documents and information to MSFC and presentation at CXC Quarterly Review • Following concurrence by MSFC and HQ, the CXC program manager will maintain for record and inclusion in the next Senior Review proposal CXC Status Report/CUC Page 5

Program Management MSFC Space Systems Programs & Projects Office Baggett (Prog Mgr) Chandra X-ray Center Program Office Wilkes (Director) Canizares (MIT) Juda/Aldcroft Brissenden (Prog Mgr) (Flt Dir) Public Communication Lestition Director’s Office Wilkes Grants Award Section Sozanski Flight Operations Team Hurley OCC Operations Eagan Science Wilkes Science Data System Fabbiano Online Operations Systems Team Ops Science Support Hardware & Systems Mission Planning Integration & Ground S/W Maintenance Calibration Software Development & Maintenance Spacecraft Engineering Flight Software Factory Support Team Mission Planning Ground Ops Team Instrument Teams Tech. Support Team Management & Facilities Sci. Data Syst. Planning Systems Engineering Holmes Archive Operations Data Processing Operations Operational Role CXC Status Report/CUC Page 6

Program Management • Contract – Contract currently runs through 30 Sept 2019 – We expect NASA to request a proposal for an extended follow-on contract • Budget and Staffing – The CXC’s budget and expenditures are in line with the PPBE-17 plan – Current staffing profile is consistent with PPBE-17 – CXC is funded through 15 Nov 16; Einstein program through 31 Mar 16 • Other – Complying with NASA travel restrictions, which have increased administrative burden at CXC and MSFC CXC Status Report/CUC Page 7

Program Management • CXC-organized Conferences and Reviews – Chandra Users’ Committee meeting 23 -24 Oct 14 – Einstein Fellows Symposium 28 -29 Oct 14 – 15 Years of Science with Chandra symposium: 18 -21 Nov 14 – Cycle 17 Peer Review 22 -26 June 15 – Workshop: The Universe in High-resolution X-ray Spectra 1921 August 15 – Chandra Users’ Committee meeting 28 -29 Sept 15 – Future: Einstein Fellows Symposium 28 -29 Oct 15 CXC Status Report/CUC Page 8

Mission Operations • Spacecraft – – – Continues to operate extremely well 4 radiation interruptions during period; 332 ks science time lost Transitioned to mixed-MUPS configuration for operational flexibility Patched CTU-A for Dwell Mode (for fast engineering data acquisition) Normal-Sun Mode on 1/6/15 due to IU-reset (180. 6 ks science time lost) Safe mode on 9/21/15 due to attitude drifting outside of sun-position monitor limit. No hardware problems. (131. 9 ks science time lost) • Science Instruments – Instruments are operating extremely well – ACIS processing unit spontaneously powered off on 1/11/15 (99. 0 ks science time lost); has happened 5 times during mission; thought to be single event upset – Installed patch to Aspect Camera on-board processing, to mitigate acquisition failures due to "multiple stars suspected" flag. – ACA team is pursuing annealing of the CCD at 20 C, and has carried out a demonstration of the necessary operations activities. CXC Status Report/CUC Page 9

Spacecraft Subsystem Status Subsystem functioning perfectly Minor problem but subsystem meets all requirements Moderate problem but manageable Serious deficiency; mitigated Page 10

Mission Operations • Operations Control Center – Smooth operations – Installed and tested virtual OCCDS upgrades at backup OCC • Mission Planning – 14 load-interrupting TOOs during this period; increased number due to twoweek loads – Observing efficiency during the period ~72%, near mission maximum but declining due to orbit evolution CXC Status Report/CUC Page 11

Mission Operations Flight & Ground teams maintained smooth operations through Boston snow storms CXC Status Report/CUC Page 12

Mission Operations – Observing Efficiency Observing time has changed due to evolving orbit CXC Status Report/CUC Page 13

Mission Operations – Consumables Momentum Unloading & Propulsion System (MUPS) Fuel Usage CXC Status Report/CUC Page 14

Mission Operations – Consumables MUPS Thruster Warm Starts A-side thrusters not being used; in reserve B-side thrusters have plenty of margin CXC Status Report/CUC Page 15

Science Operations • CXC Data System Releases DS 10. 3. 1 DS 10. 3. 2 DS 10. 3. 3 DS 10. 3. 4 DS 10. 4. 1 DS 10. 4. 2 12/5/14 12/16/14 1/15/15 4/29/15 6/2/15 7/8/15 9/23/15 P 012 Telemetry template update Cf. P 17 Support MTA upgrade for P 012 CIAO Data Analysis Releases Web. Reports & cxcusers DB for Cf. P 17 Annual DS release; complete CXCDS/SW Linux port P 013 telemetry upgrade ACIS CC mode grating data processing • CIAO Data Analysis Releases CIAO 4. 7 B 2 10/17/14 CIAO Beta 2 CIAO 4. 7 12/17/14 CIAO Annual Data Analysis Release Sherpa 4/20/15 Sherpa standalone release & WF definition CIAO 4. 8 B 6/16/15 Internal Beta 1 release CXC Status Report/CUC Page 16

Science Operations • Data Processing – Automatic processing is current; mean time from end of observation to delivery to user remains at about one day • Calibration Products released Quarterly ACIS detector gain maps ACIS-S 1 low energy gainupdate Annual HRC detector gain maps HRC-I de-gap map update HRC-I QE update HRC-S QE and QE map updates Updates to the extraction region and extracted count fraction in LETG/HRC-S data Products to be released by December 2014 ACIS contamination model update ACIS blank sky background files for the period 2012 -2015 CXC Status Report/CUC Page 17

Science Operations Data Delivery As of middle of following month Month Number of Obs Days to Data Delivery Min Avg Max As of 9/11/15 Number Deliv Number Outstanding Sep-14 58 0 1 3 58 0 Oct-14 49 0 1 6 49 0 Nov-14 54 0 1 4 54 0 Dec-14 59 0 1 8 59 0 Jan-15 52 0 1 5 52 0 Feb-15 62 0 1 15 62 0 Mar-15 55 0 1 7 55 0 Apr-15 41 0 1 3 41 0 May-15 47 0 1 4 47 0 Jun-15 64 0 1 12 64 0 Jul-15 53 0 1 11 53 0 Aug-15 52 0 1 3 52 0 Avg delivery ~1 day from observation CXC Status Report/CUC Comments Page 18

Grant Awards SAO Grants (2) Month of Federal Data Delivery Grants (1, 3) Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15 1 0 0 2 2 1 0 0 3 0 As of the middle of following month Non- No. Grants No. Avg days to Federal Awarded Outstanding award (4) Grants (3) 11 4 73 14 15 7 11 10 13 7 10 4 5 2 49 12 11 7 11 8 13 7 1 0 2 2 24 2 4 0 0 2 0 0 11 6 9 8 57* 18 12 10 14 7 9 12 As of 9/15/15 No. Grants Awarded No. Outstanding 11 4 73 14 15 7 11 10 13 7 0 0 0 Outstanding Awards Proposal no, Comments Grants awarded to scientists at Federal institutions as interagency transfers through MSFC. Grants awarded to scientists at non-Federal institutions through SAO Contracts and Grants Department. (3) Number of grants eligible for award, for which data were delivered to the observer in the month. (4) Average days from data delivery to grant award does not include grants outstanding as of the middle of the following month. * Approval from MSFC to issue grant funds was received after some observations were made and data were distributed, delaying issuance of awards. (1) (2) Grants are typically awarded within ~2 -3 weeks of observation CXC Status Report/CUC Page 19

Education and Public Outreach • Press – 12 science press releases, 2 non-science releases; 3 press release postings, 10 image releases, resulting in > 2400 articles in print, web news and science web sites. Monthly estimated audience in tens of millions. • Web, Digital, Social Media – Public web site attracts average of ~12. 65 million hits per month – Award-winning podcasts remain the #1 download with ~300 k hits/month – Social media platform continues to grow, with cumulative ~82 k Twitter followers. ~255 k Facebook likes, >1. 5 million You. Tube views, 33 k Google+ followers – New initiatives include i. Pad App architecture, 3 D printing, “Ultra. HD”/hyperwall video output (i. e. images at AAS/IAU), Pixinsight algorithm for smoothing undersampled data sets • Public Outreach – Launched NASA version of “Light: Behind the Bulb” exhibit to expand offerings for International Year of Light. SPIE-sponsored exhibits in US at O’Hare and Atlanta airports and internationally. NASA exhibit (including Braille panels) touring US libraries, 1/mo. Over 600 venues total. See http: //lightexhibit. org CXC Status Report/CUC Page 20

Education and Public Outreach (con’t) • Education – 19 presentations at NSTA, Boys & Girls Clubs, Youth Summer Reading, etc. – National Science Olympiad: supported national competition events and coaches clinics reaching ~200, 000 students on over 6000 teams. Filmed legacy training videos for team coaches. – On-line data analysis and software activities accepted for distribution by NASA product review. • Future of EPO – EPO guidelines for FY 16 still in flux – Separation between public outreach and education not clear – Submitted Co-I proposal to consortium proposal, with STSc. I as PI, in response to NASA education Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN). Winners not announced as of this date. CXC Status Report/CUC Page 21