TUESDAY 8/5 (two days to launch)

Student teams have deployed to various control sites around the country:

• DATA-CHASER project manager Peter Illsley and team member Shankini Doraisingam will be viewing the launch in person at Kennedy Space Center, Florida (along with a half-dozen or so CSGC students who have traveled to see the launch at their own expense). Immediately following launch, Peter will travel to Goddard Space Flight Center in Virginia, and Shankini will return to Colorado to assist in payload operations at CU.

• Goddard Space Flight Center is where NASA shuttle-small-payload operations are carried out. DATA-CHASER operations manager Ryan Shepperd and team members Colette Wilklow and Chris Sturm will be working at GSFC for the duration of the mission, serving as an interface between NASA and DATA-CHASER operations.

• DATA-CHASER students remaining at CU for mission operations include systems engineer Jason Willis, and team members Cindy Conrad, Tom Height, Cortney Henderson, Tim Leisy, and Diana Mann.

• To demonstrate distributed operations, an additional DATA-CHASER operations site will be set up at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California. CSGC alumni Kathryn Schimmels and Clark Snowdall will be running things there.

DATA-CHASER personnel at all stations are currently performing final software and network checkouts before the mission begins.

WEDNESDAY 8/6 (one day to launch)

Minor software problems were noted during final operations setup; these have been fixed by the DATA-CHASER student engineering teams now in place at the University of Colorado and Goddard Space Flight Center, VA. Ground software is now operational and the teams are eagerly awaiting launch tomorrow ("Christmas") morning.

KSC reports that there are currently no technical issues which may delay the launch of STS-85. Bad weather is a possibility; currently there is a 40% chance that the launch may be affected. If the launch is delayed, the next opportunity comes Friday morning 8/8.

THURSDAY 8/7 (launch, flight day 1)

5:41AM MDT:

"Well, if anyone wanted to stop the shuttle launch, you missed your chance. We (ASPC) just gave the T-3 hour 'go' and I didn't object :) Now let's pray for the weather!"
-Ryan Shepperd

8:00AM MDT:

CSGC students and staff gather together around the country to watch the launch of STS-85.

Project manager Peter Illsley and team member Shankini Doraisingam (along with a half-dozen other CSGC students) are watching the launch live at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Payload operations manager Ryan Shepperd and team members Colette Wilklow and Chris Sturm are at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Virginia.

A large group of students and staff, including DATA-CHASER systems engineer Jason Willis, and operations team members Cindy Conrad, Tom Height, Cortney Henderson, Tim Leisy, and Diana Mann, are watching from the University of Colorado.

And several CSGC alumni, Clark Snowdall and Kathryn Schimmels (former DATA-CHASER project manager) are watching from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

8:41AM MDT:

STS-85 lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch goes extremely smoothly despite threatening weather, and the DATA-CHASER team is all smiles. Now the hard work begins!

9:00AM MDT:

With Discovery safely in orbit, DATA-CHASER operations commence. Students at the UPOCC (University Point of Command and Control, University of Colorado) and the ASPC (Shuttle Small Payload Operations at Goddard Space Flight Center, VA) communicate via NASA voice loops and Internet network connections.

MET (mission elapsed time) 0/3:15 (0 days, 3 hours, 15 minutes after launch)

The first opportunity to contact DATA-CHASER after launch came during the IEH-2 powerup sequence. CHASER was powered up at MET 0/3:09, and DATA was powered up at MET 0/3:38. Both systems powered up properly. Contact was established with DATA, and 10 "pings" (a quick test of the end-to-end network connecting CU and DATA-CHASER) were sent and properly returned. An engineering scan (a comprehensive survey of the on-board sensors) was performed and everything looked nominal. The team is now awaiting the door-opening sequence at MET 0/10:00 and the first viewing opportunity (a look down at Earth to test the instruments) at MET 0/16:00.

FRIDAY 8/8 (flight day 2)

The DATA-CHASER team has been successfully communicating with the orbiting payload as opportunities appear in the mission timeline. Despite minor problems, the DATA segment of the project has been an outstanding success, allowing students at the University of Colorado to control orbiting hardware via the Internet. The science instruments in CHASER are sending back data which is currently being evaluated. At MET (Mission Elapsed Time) 0/10:00 (0 days, 10 hours), DATA-CHASER had it's first Earth-viewing opportunity. The instruments in CHASER were designed to look directly at the sun and therefore cannot image the much dimmer Earth, but such opportunities allow the computers, software, and networks to be tested. At MET 1/3:15 (one day, 3 hours, 15 minutes) the first solar-viewing opportunity of the mission occurred. A science-scan was taken, and team scientists are reviewing the resulting data. FARUS, the main science instrument in CHASER, is close to 20 years old and a veteran of many rocket and shuttle flights. It may be showing it's age, as the resulting data did not show the features that the project scientists were expecting. However, the format of the data appears to be that of an operating instrument, so project members are hopeful that it is just being finicky and will perform better as the mission progresses. The team will continue to take scans during science opportunities as the mission progresses, and begin testing advanced automation software. Minor problems with the ground software are also being addressed by project software engineers Sam Siewert and Joe Antell.		DATA-CHASER is just one of the experiments on the IEH-2 bridge, which is located at the rear of Discovery's cargo bay. Graphics courtesy NASA.
The POCC (Point of Command and Control) at the University of Colorado. Present are DATA-CHASER Systems Engineer Jason Willis, Operations Team member Tom Height, and Science Team member Tony Colaprete. Students will be working in shifts around the clock for the duration of the 10-day mission.

MONDAY 8/11 (flight day 5)

The DATA (Distributed Automation Technology Advancement) portion of the experiment is going extremely well. The ground software is running solidly (occasional database hangs are being looked into), and the team is planning on testing advanced autonomy software and additional remote Internet operations sites later this week. The main concern for the CHASER portion of the experiment is the FARUS (FAR Ultraviolet Spectrometer) instrument. Mechanically, the instrument is operating correctly (the instrument consists of a motorized grating which directs light at various wavelengths onto a photomultiplier tube). The instrument is measuring solar spectra, but in a very coarse fashion (the data coming out is either 0 or full-scale, without any values in between). The engineering team is currently monitoring the situation, trying to determine whether this is a temporary or permanent problem, and working on alternate measurement strategies. The operations team has also been busy monitoring the flight computer, which does not operate reliably at temperatures below -10 degrees C. Such an incident occurred Friday night (August 8), when the computer refused to respond to ground commands. After a few tense hours the payload warmed up enough for the computer to function, and there have not been any problems since. The team is currently keeping a close eye on the payload's temperature, and keeping it warm by operating auxiliary heaters and equipment in the DATA canister. Quotes of the day: "I get cold, payload gets cold, no one is happy" -Colette Wilklow at GSFC "Everything is just peachy when I'm on shift" -Chris Sturm at GSFC

DATA-CHASER Systems Engineer Jason Willis and Payload Operator Diana Mann in the CU POCC (Payload Operations Control Center). The students at CU are commanding and operating the payload in realtime, and are in continuous voice communications with the CU team at the NASA Small-Shuttle Payload Operations at Goddard Space Flight Center. DATA-CHASER Operator Diana Mann in the pilot's seat. Through the Graphical User Interface (GUI) which is part of the mission operations software, commands can be sent to the orbiting hardware, and the resulting data can be viewed and analyzed. In addition to screen display, the data is stored in a database for further study.

CHASER's door opening (rear, center), as caught by the Shuttle video system at the rear of the cargo bay. Video courtesy NASA.

WEDNESDAY 8/13 (flight day 7)

The DATA-CHASER mission is going extremely well, despite continuing difficulties with CHASER's FARUS instrument. It is returning science data, and the science team can distinguish wavelengths in the data, but not intensities at those wavelengths. Though this problem limits the science benefit of the data, FARUS is still supporting the DATA experiment, which is the primary objective of this project. The team is continuing to evaluate the condition of the instrument, and the flight software team is working on possible remote fixes.The team has also been dealing with a cold flight computer. Once again the temperature of the 68040 main processor dropped below 0°C causing the computer to temporarily stop functioning. DATA-CHASER systems engineer Jason Willis has dubbed this the "siliconsicle" mode. The team has since been careful to turn on extra equipment and heaters in the DATA canister to keep the processor warm. Project scientist Tony Colaprete explains that the cargo bay is normally kept between 0°C and 30°C, but has been particularly cold on this mission due to the large amount of limb and deep-space pointing required by the various experiments on board.The DATA-CHASER team is gradually adding more autonomy to the mission operations system. Where all early mission operations were performed manually (so that problems could be quickly spotted and solved by human operators), much of the repetitive data-gathering and evaluation operations are now performed by software. SELMON (SELective MONitoring), a software package developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is being used to search incoming engineering data for subtle trends and correlations which could signal trouble down the line. This type of software will be extremely important for future deep-space missions, where contact time is at a premium and spacecraft must be able to take care of themselves. The Colorado Space Grant Consortium is evaluating this and other software as part of it's EEMOS (End to End Mission Operation System) concept.

Workin' on the night shift...

Quotes of the day:

"Dig it!"
Operator Diana Mann's standard communications signoff
(a vast improvement over the NASA standard: "copy")

"Wish I could give you good news to post about FARUS, but I'm afraid it's cooperating as well as my 1982 Mercury Lynx does in subzero weather."
Ryan Shepperd, who should know

Colette Wilklow on climbing stairs:
"This is why I'm tired at the start of the shift"

Ryan Shepperd, after waking up, in response to "How are you?"
"Judging by the amount of toothpaste on my fingers instead of the toothbrush, not very well."

FARUS, after waking up, in response to "farus_scan_A = 1"
"46 46 20 30"

Tim Leisy on repetition:
"Roger, CHASER, Roger"

FARUS on repetition:
"20 30 30 20 30 30"

"The system was crashing because of unwanted gui children that needed to be killed. Jason killed them and Joe went to the movies"
Shankini's log for MET 05/11:50:00

FRIDAY 8/15 (flight day 9)

Flight day 9 has been a cold one for the DATA-CHASER team. Due to the large amount of deep-space pointing done by Discovery (several of the experiments on-board have scheduled viewing time for objects such as Jupiter and the Hale-Bopp comet), DATA's 68040 main processor has been below 0°C for much of the day. The processor shuts down at such temperatures, keeping communications at a minimum. (When Discovery points the cargo bay towards deep space, it is effectively radiating towards infinity, and things get very cold very fast). As CHASER's instruments were only designed to look at the sun, this is not necessarily "down time" for science, but the DATA portion of the project, which tests out advanced mission-operations concepts, can always use engineering data from the spacecraft to run through the ground software. More solar views are scheduled for the near future, so DATA-CHASER should shortly be warming up and running more reliably.

The DATA-CHASER team has also been demonstrating the advanced mission-operations system to viewers around the country. Several demonstrations were made for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who are EEMOS (End to End Mission Operation System) development partners with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. A remote-operations console was set up at JPL in Pasadena California, and operators there (including CSGC alumni and former DATA-CHASER Project Manager Kathryn Schimmels) were able to command the spacecraft and look at the resulting data from that location. Despite minor network problems (the present level of software does not have all the network error-correction code that future versions will have), the demonstrations went very well.

It's only software...

Quotes of the day:

When Eileen Jemison came in to work Wed. morning, she spotted Systems Engineer Jason Willis looking a bit raggedy. She cried, "Oh my gosh, what's that?!?! Beat it with a stick!!"

In a similar vein, Trish Dunbar commented to Software Engineer Joe Antell:
"Gee, Joe, you're looking rode hard and put up wet!"

Jason upon forgetting to save a file:
Jason: "I am an idiot... no comment."
Shankini: "Well, sometimes we are the best judge of ourselves."

Jason on the ops for this mission:
"First the distributed part, now the autonomy, the 3rd stage will be ops by mental telepathy."

SUNDAY 8/17 (flight day 11)

The last days of operations for DATA-CHASER have gone extremely well. The payload made its last solar observations (warming up from the below-zero conditions of the last several days), and demonstrated full autonomy in the ground software. The addition of "beacon" functionality to the operations software has closed the loop; it can now autonomously request information from the spacecraft, analyze the resulting data, and give a high-level assessment of the spacecraft's health. (The student operators have even commented on how little they now have to do, as compared to the beginning of the mission where everything was run manually). This was exactly the goal of the DATA (Distributed Automation Technology Advancement) project, and everybody involved is extremely pleased with the results.

As of this writing, NASA has powered down the IEH-2 bridge containing DATA-CHASER and is planning for a Monday-morning landing of Discovery at Kennedy Space Center. For a while it looked like the mission might be extended by a day, but preparations are continuing for deorbit. Feelings are mixed; operator Shankini Doraisingam expressed regret that the mission was over, but operator Diana Mann has had enough 12-hour shifts for the moment. All agree that this has been an unforgettable three-year experience.

The Away Team

Quotes of the day:

"All personnel, please check for a fire in your area."
- The OD at Goddard, in a calm voice. (That fire is still missing:)

Ryan, on authority:
Chris: "Are you sure you know how to drive this thing [ultra-sparc greco]?"
Ryan: "Can I drive? I have the keys to this thing!"
(moments later, the software crashed)

"Ha lo lo!"
- Colette's standard greeting

Yes, I do scoff! In fact, I bite my thumb at thee!
-Ryan in a frustrated moment

"Sleep is a state of mind... the mind resides in the head.... you need a head to sleep, you can't sleep without a head"
-Shankini while on the late shift suffering from lack of sleep

"Shankini is just dead wrong. A headless moth can sleep just as well as a headfull moth. In fact, it sleeps better because there is no danger of snoring"
-Ryan

"Sleep is really not sleep without the capability to dream.
Or to wake up."
-Shankini

"In order to know if the moth were dreaming and hence sleeping, you would have to wake it up. And that would be rude---especially if it were dead. Restricting sleep to such a narrow definition as the ability to wake up is a rather biased Malasiancentric view of life. If I can't wake up, does that make me dead? No, of course not. In fact, I've carried on a perfect conversation with Gabe about Floridian hotel checkout procedures while completely asleep. I was not awake and, contrary to the grimaces of my co-workers, I was NOT dead."
-Ryan

(At this point communications became garbled; we assume that both Ryan and Shankini's shifts ended, and they are now resting comfortably. -Ed)

DATA-CHASER STATUS FOR MONDAY 8/18:

The DATA-CHASER team got an early-morning surprise when space shuttle Discovery got a landing day wave-off due to fog at the Kennedy Space Center landing site. The landing has been rescheduled for Tuesday morning at 6:08 AM CDT. In the meantime, the payload bay was reopened, the IEH-2 bridge was powered on, and all the on-board experiments get an extra day to operate. DATA-CHASER is making use of the time by giving its full-up autonomy package a thorough and extended workout. "We're generating megabytes of data" commented systems engineer Jason Willis.

The extra day only adds to an already successful flight. Among other things DATA-CHASER has demonstrated a number of tools, technologies, and approaches to determine if they would be useful for the End-to-End Mission Operations of future space missions. These flight demonstrations include:

1. Fault Management
   This includes fault monitoring, detection, isolation (i.e., search to determine the cause of the problem), reaction, and reporting. This was accomplished by a command and control tool, SCL, and a selective monitoring tool, "SELMON", located on the ground.
   
2. Operations Flexibility
   Lessons learned early in the mission should result in updates to operations later in the mission. This demonstration was accomplished with project updates of the ground system consisting of new scripts, rules, constraints, sequences, and operations procedures.
   
3. Self-Commanding
   Self-Commanding consisted of: health, safety, and resource utilization monitors to react to anomalies and command errors; constraint checks to prevent commands that are not correct or not appropriate for specific situations; automatic command sequences to react to health / safety / resource problems and anomalies; and automatic command sequences to react to detected opportunities and events. The Systems Control Language (SCL) was used as the control executive with command and data monitoring capabilities.
   
4. Opportunity Management
   This demonstration include event monitoring, detection, recognition, isolation, reaction, and reporting. It was accomplished on the ground and prevented commands that were not correct or not appropriate for that situation. Examples of such opportunities could include unpredicted Sun-in-view, or instrument integration time updates to optimize signal-to-noise ratios.
   
5. Interactive Operations
   This is commonly known as "Joy sticking" or the direct, interactive control of operations and instruments by principal scientists and engineers located at their Science Workstations, Central Workstation, Engineering Workstations, or GSE. These operations should prevent things users shouldn't do and enable things that users wish to do. This demonstration also allows direct, interactive control of experiment subsystems by subsystem engineers; direct control via single commands by a ground user; and indirect control via scripts initiated by a ground user. Example operations include pointing offset corrections and fine-tuning integration times for various operational modes.
   
6. Operations by Users at Distributed Sites
   Users at GSFC, Colorado, and JPL are involved during the mission. This included demonstrating the capability of the Security approach to verify commands sent through the firewall to the payload. A hierarchy of command contentions and interactions also demonstrated during the mission, including the smooth hand-off of the control hierarchy from one level to another. Finally, the control of redundant data links and distribution of data to multiple users have demonstrated.
   
7. Migration of Autonomy
   This includes the complete migration of automation of functions from ground to flight, i.e., from the ground testbed to the ground control center. It also includes migration from human-controlled operations to fully-autonomous operations. This begins with strictly manual control, migrates to procedural control with human concurrence, to fully-autonomous control; and back to human-controlled (if desired).
   
8. Use of Integrated Planning and Scheduling
   The planning and scheduling functions are integrated as part of the ground system. It includes planning updates to respond to new flight plans and schedules, planning updates to respond to unexpected anomalies or events, generating new schedules of events around these updates, and automatic generation of SCL scripts. The DATA-CHASER Automated Planner/Scheduler (DCAPS) is a JPL-developed planning and scheduling tool to receive Shuttle timeline data, develop a constraint-free schedule, and generate the SCL commands to control payload operations.
   
9. Beacon Functions
   The Beacon Function relies on SCL and SELMON to assess the performance of the overall payload. This assessment is relayed to the ground operators at one of four overall states -- green, yellow, orange, and red - to indicate the need to communicate with the ground users.
   
10. Student Operations
    DATA-CHASER was also a successful demonstration of how students are capable of operating complex space payloads.

The End-to-End Mission Operations System (EEMOS) used by DATA-CHASER. Graphic by Sam Siewert, CSGC.

Quotes of the day:

"Sometimes wishes do come true........ EXTRA DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
- Shankini

"This is all Shankini's fault!"
- Diana

Remark to a not-so-excited-Ryan after hearing that the landing was no-go:
"Just think. Tomorrow we get to do this again and you won't have that (expletive deleted) end of mission report to write"

"Hey, do you know anything about UNIX?"
- ISIR experimenter to Ryan :)

"We have the Phantom S-band!"
- Pete upon discovering that we are getting data when the FOC says we are in ZOE

"Why are they trying to land so early in the morning? See, that's their problem!"
- Chris on the landing delay