ACIS Instrument Support - Monthly Progress Report for December 2017

1.  ACIS Characterization

1.3 Monitor scientific on-orbit performance of ACIS

  ...  Continued monitoring of ACIS CTI, gain, trailing pixel pulseheight, detector efficiency, corner pixel distribution, spectral line centroid and width, and focal plane temperature.  Updated monitoring web pages. (http://space.mit.edu/~cgrant/monitor.html).


2.  Engineering

2.1 Instrument hardware engineering performance

  ...  Continue to monitor long term ACIS instrument performance.  All engineering data remains nominal.
  
  ...  The EEPROM checksum was verified in the DEC0417 load.   Will continue to run monthly.  MIT telemetry processing will automatically check the results and send out an alert if the checksum is unexpected.

  ...  Supported Flight Director Board review of "atomic" SOPs to turn DEA-A and DEA-B on and off.  Approved.
  
  ...  Reviewed and provided comment on SOP: Switch from DEA-A to DEA-B.  Discussion about what kind of verification occurs after the switch and what housekeeping data is available when switched to DEA-B.  Working on verification with the ACIS engineering unit.

2.2 Flight software maintenance

  ...  Flight software patch F-G-H (improved buscrash2) uploaded in June 2014.

  ...  We continue to monitor threshold crossing rates.  The current TXINGS parameters, which were last updated on July 28, 2016, are still be valid, but will be verified again in January.

2.3 Instrument science performance

  ...  Participated in monthly ACIS operations meeting.  Reviewed OCC relocation plans, SOP development, thermal models, and the new power command for perigee passages.

  ...  Updated ACIS quick-response web page for the DEA-A Shutdown Anomaly to point to the new version of FOT SOPs approved by the FDB.

  ...  Continued daily quick-look processing of ACIS telemetry and maintained Web interface to ACIS real-time data.

  ...  Continued to publish the "annotated DOT" timeline reports.

2.5 Participate in Chandra Activities

  ...  Participated in FOT Backup OCC test.  ACIS supported the BU OCC test in December by receiving telemetry through the backup feed, extracting ACIS science and housekeeping statistics, comparing the results to the standard OCC feed, and reporting on the data quality.


3.  CXC Support

3.1 Provide user support

  ...  Participated in splinter meeting on QEU calibration updates.

  ...  ACIS memo listing calibration ObsIDs and observation characteristics (ACIS Memo #165) will no longer be updated.  Functionality is replaced by new web page (http://acis.mit.edu/asc/evt-page.html), which provides the same information but is more automated.

3.2 Provide data analysis support
  
  ...  Continued to maintain ACIS calibration database of ground and flight data products.

  ...  Participated in program planning for upcoming IACHEC meeting (April in Italy).

4.  OCC Support

4.1 Use of MIT/ACIS EGSE at OCC

  ...  Continued support and maintenance of ACIS EGSE software and hardware at the OCC.  Performed monthly check of all ACIS hardware and software in the TST room at the OCC.  Working on updating documentation.

  ...  Purchased new EGSE workstations for the relocated OCC.  Currently being configured and set up with appropriate software.

4.2 Generation of commands for ACIS observations

  ...  In response to FOT request, created new ACIS power command that powers down all the video boards but turns three FEPs on and three FEPs off for use during perigee passages to help keep the ACIS DPA within thermal limits.  Tested on the engineering unit and released to the FOT for use in mission planning.

  ...  Fixed a bug in automated process that populates the SI Mode Finder web page that was displaying incorrect energy filter values for a small number of SI modes.

  ...  Diagnosed and fixed problem with incompatible expect libraries used in accessing the OCAT.  Longer-term fix will remove dependence on expect, which is not under direct ACIS ops control.

  ...  Continued review and updating of SACGS documentation (SACGS = SOT ACIS Command Generation System).

  ...  Continuing familiarization with SACGS operation and under-the-hood functioning.

  ...  Reviewed DEC2517A and DEC2517B command loads. Reviewed JAN0818 preliminary schedule, JAN0818 final OR list, and JAN1518 Long Term Schedule OR list.

  ...  Assigned 26 SI modes.  Dropped chips from 6 ObsIDs

  ...  Build and tested new SI mode to complete the initial AO-19 assignment.

  ...  Checking on automated processes associated with SACGS.