Chandra Operations CXO Status Report 7 June 2002
During the last week the observing schedule was replanned to include an observation of the Gamma Ray Burster GRB020531 that was accepted as a pre-approved Target Of Opportunity (TOO) on 3 June. The schedule was replanned to include the 20ks observation without significant impact to the existing target sequence.
During the uplink of the TOO loads on June 4, a ground system software problem was detected that resulted in an invalid command load being uplinked to the spacecraft. The invalid load was rejected by the OBC without operational impact. A workaround to avoid the problem has been implemented while the software is being diagnosed.
Two Chandra press releases were issued last week in conjunction with the AAS held in Albuquerque, NM. The first on June 4 describes the detection of an unexpectedly large number of neutron stars and black holes in elliptical galaxies. The second on June 6 announced the detection of features that may be the first direct evidence of the effect of gravity on radiation from a neutron star. For further details, see: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/02_releases/press_060402.html
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/02_releases/press_060602.html
The observing schedule for the next week is shown below and includes a followup observation of the TOO GRB020531.
------------------------------------------- Radiation Belts Jun 10 PSS 1338+2218 ACIS-S A1795 ACIS-S GRB020531 (TOO) ACIS-I NGC 5954 ACIS-S AQL X-1 ACIS-S SN2001IG ACIS-S Jun 11 PKS2155-304 (3 obs) ACIS-S/LETG Radiation Belts Jun 12 Trifid Nebula ACIS-I 1E 1740.7-2942 ACIS-S/HETG Jun 13 IRAS16293 ACIS-I A907 ACIS-I Jun 14 MACSJ1131.8-1955 ACIS-I Radiation Belts NGC 3955 ACIS-S Jun 15 NGC 4782/3 ACIS-S NGC4698 ACIS-S Jun 16 Quest 1533-0346 ACIS-S -------------------------------------------
All spacecraft subsystems continued to operate nominally.
