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Operations CXO Status Report
Friday 5/18/01 10.00am EDT
During the last week, Chandra completed the observing schedule
as planned.
Recent real-time activities included a commanded CTI
measurement at 8am EDT on May 6. This measurement and others
taken through April show that no significant degradation in the
ACIS energy resolution was sustained during April. This is
excellent news given the extreme levels of solar radiation
experienced during the month, and provides confidence in the
monitoring systems and safing thresholds in place. Also, a
routine update of the Ephemeris was completed on May 14.
Of note last week was the approval of a new solar torque ground
software model used to determine the timing and magnitude of
momentum dumps. The momentum builds each orbit due principally
to solar pressure and gravity gradient through perigee. The
momentum is unloaded by firing the Momentum Unloading
Propulsion System (MUPS). The new model is based on actual
on-orbit data from the first 18 months of the mission, and is
expected to significantly reduce the number MUPS firings.
Two Chandra press releases were issued last week, the first on
May 14 presented a new view of the Circinus Galaxy's central
supermassive black hole and a host of potential smaller black
holes sprinkled throughout its spiral arms. The second release
on May 17 reported on the first complete census of compact
binary systems in the core of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae.
For the full stories and pictures see
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/01_releases/press_051401.html,
and
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/01_releases/press_051701.html.
The planned observations for the coming week are shown below
and include an observation of the Gamma-ray source GRS 1915+105
coordinated with RXTE and the VLA.
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Q1422+231 ACIS-S May 21
Centaurus A ACIS-S/HETG
Radiation Belts May 22
4U 0142+61 ACIS-S/HETG
GRS 1915+105 ACIS-S/HETG May 23
AO PSC ACIS-S/HETG
A3112 ACIS-S May 24
Radiation Belts
CAS A ACIS-S/HETG May 25
Cartwheel ACIS-S May 26
NGC4111 ACIS-S May 27
2MASSJ130700+2338 ACIS-I
Radiation Belts
UGC 05101 ACIS-S NONE May 28
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All spacecraft subsystems continued to operate nominally.
Return to 2001 Status Reports
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