T 062702

Slide1: 

What is Swift (Marg Chester, Swift Ops Lead Scientist) What are GRBs (Sally Hunsberger, Swift UVOT Scientist) Penn State’s Role (Sally Hunsberger) Tour of X-ray Telescope Lab and Future Mission Operations Center

The Swift MIDEX: 

The Swift MIDEX Prime Institution: GSFC (Neil Gehrels, PI) Lead University Partner: Penn State (PSU) Countries Involved: USA, Italy, UK Spacecraft Partner: Spectrum Astro Mission Operations Partner: Omitron

Swift Overview: 

Swift Overview Objectives Study 100s of GRBs during mission Determine origin of GRBs Explore environment near GRBs Use GRBs to probe the Universe Perform all-sky hard X-ray survey Rapidly re-pointing spacecraft ~ 1 minute automated response Quick response to Targets of Opportunity Data distributed immediately to astronomical community Burst alerts in seconds Follow-up observations in a day

Spacecraft & Launcher: 

Spacecraft & Launcher Launch date 2003 Spacecraft by Spectrum Astro Launcher is Delta II (7320) Low Earth Orbit: 600 km Inclination ~20 degrees Three-year mission operation life Orbit stable for 5+ years without propulsion Peak slew rate 50 degrees in < 50 s Arrive within 1 arc-minute of target Autonomous operations and pointing

SWIFT Ground Track: 

SWIFT Ground Track

Swift Instruments: 

Swift Instruments BAT XRT Spacecraft UVOT Spacecraft Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) CZT detectors & coded aperture Most sensitive gamma-ray imager ever X-Ray Telescope (XRT) Arcsecond GRB positions CCD spectroscopy Jet-X mirrors, XMM Detectors UV/Optical Telescope (UVOT) Sub-arcsecond imaging; Finding chart Grism spectroscopy 24th mag sensitivity (1000 sec) Copy of XMM OM

GRB Data “Gap”: 

GRB Data “Gap” Beppo-SAX took at least 6-8 hours to perform an afterglow follow-up observation with its narrow field instruments, and only saw about 10 bursts per year.

Cascade of Images from High Energy to Low: 

Cascade of Images from High Energy to Low Observing Scenario: Burst Alert Telescope triggers on GRB, calculates position on sky Spacecraft autonomously slews to GRB position X-ray Telescope determines more accurate position UV/Optical Telescope images field, transmits finding chart to ground SLEW

Telescope Design from High Energy to Low: 

Telescope Design from High Energy to Low Gamma Ray “Shadow” X-ray “Grazing Incidence” UV-Optical “Normal Incidence” Radio

Atmospheric Transparency from High Energy to Low: 

Atmospheric Transparency from High Energy to Low Placeholder for slide from astronomy text.

Burst Alert Telescope (BAT): 

Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) Detector Module CZT Detectors

X-ray Telescope (XRT): 

X-ray Telescope (XRT)

Focal Plane Camera Assembly: 

Focal Plane Camera Assembly Wolter Type I X-ray Mirrors XRT Camera & Mirrors

UVOT’s Arrival at GSFC – May ’02:: 

UVOT’s Arrival at GSFC – May ’02: UV-Optical Telescope (UVOT)

Slide15: 

Ritchey-Chrétien Design UV-Optical Mirrors UVOT Detector & Mirrors Detector: Image Intensified CCD

Ground System Architecture: 

S/W Updates, Observatory Data Ground System Architecture White Sands Complex (WSC) Malindi Ground Station SWIFT TDRS S-Band CMD/TLM 2.25 Mbps downlink (RT & PB TLM) 2 kbps uplink (Normal Commanding) NCC Mission Operations Center (MOC) Swift Data Center Commands Command, H/K, Science Penn State GSFC Houston Optical Telescopes Radio Telescopes Pass-Oriented L0 Data Quick-Look & Production Data (FITS) Requests for ToOs & Coordinated Observing Observation Results e.g. Chandra e.g. HET e.g. VLA Alerts, TOO Commanding, Contingency H/K, Tracking Data Analysis Tools Alerts, H/K HEASARC GSFC GSFC February 5, 2002 Revision J GCN GSFC Front-End S-Band CMD/TLM 1 kbps downlink (Alerts & H/K) 125 bps uplink (ToO Requests) SN Scheduling & Status Burst Alerts Satellites Science Community Science Teams ISAC UKDC 2-Line Elements Flight Dynamics Facility GSFC Orbit Data Tracking Data Tracking Data Kenya ASINet Fucino Gateway Fucino, Italy ASINet US Gateway JSC 384kbps Leased Line

Ground Station at Malindi:Italian Space Agency & U. of Rome: 

Ground Station at Malindi: Italian Space Agency & U. of Rome

MOC Facility Layout: 

MOC Facility Layout Flight Ops Control Room Scientists’ Offices Engineers’ Offices Administrative Support

Ops Concept Refresher: 

Ops Concept Refresher Highly Autonomous Mission On-board: Detection, Slewing, & Observations MOC: Telemetry Monitoring, Malindi Passes, etc. Small Operations Team At Penn State 8x5 Staffing, 24x7 Response (Paging for Bursts, Anomalies) Omitron - Flight Ops; PSU- Science Ops (XRT, UVOT Scientists) Sustaining Engineering by Spectrum & Instruments Rapid & Flexible Mission Planning Daily & Opportunistic Mission Replans Close Coordination of Flight & Science Ops Teams New GRB or ToO Response Options: Typical: Add to Timeline During Scheduled Weekday Revision Faster: Quick Replan, Upload via TDRSS or Malindi Fastest: Upload GRB Position & Merit to FoM

Normal, GRB & Anomaly Operations: 

Normal, GRB & Anomaly Operations On-Board Automation: Minimum 3-day Target & Command Load Automated GRB Detection & Follow-up, S/C Checks Constraints GRB Alerts via TDRSS to GCN & MOC On-board Science Data Capacity ~ 4 Days Spacecraft Capable of 72 Hour Operation Without Ground Command Anomalies Trigger Spacecraft SOH Telemetry via TDRSS Instruments Have Autonomous Safing and SAA Procedures Weekday Ground Operations: Primary Ground Station at Malindi, Kenya (Italian Space Agency) 7-8 Contacts Per Day; Most Automated Target Timeline Revised to Accommodate New GRBs, ToOs Updated Target & Command Load Uploaded Daily Automated Monitoring of Spacecraft & Instruments State of Health Off-shift (Nights & Weekends): Paging for GRBs, Time-critical ToOs, & Anomalies Remote Display of Alerts, Quicklook, SOH If Commanding Warranted, Travel to MOC

MOC Operational Dataflows: R/T: 

MOC Operational Dataflows: R/T

Slide22: 

Remote Access

Mission Science Planning: 

Mission Science Planning Typical Science Timeline Inputs New GRB Afterglows: ~1 New Afterglow Per Day Time-critical ToO: 1 Per Week to Followup Previous GRB Afterglows: 3-4 Visible (at High Energies) Planned ToOs (Monitoring, etc.): ~1 Per Week BAT Transient Monitoring: (Rate?) BAT Survey Coverage: 12 of 15 Pointings Per Day (80%) Calibrations Using Astrophysical Sources: ~1 Per Week Major Planning Considerations 4-5 Targets Per Orbit Multi-orbit Observation Times Require “Juggling” of Targets Choose BAT Survey Pointings & Safe Pointings (not safehold) To Be Astrophysically Interesting (Vote Now For Your Favorite)

TAKO Target Scheduler: 

TAKO Target Scheduler

The Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer: Catching Gamma Ray Bursts on the Fly: 

The Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer: Catching Gamma Ray Bursts on the Fly “Flight very rapid, ‘twinkling’, sailing between spurts.” – Roger Tory Peterson “Swifts fly expertly on their first try. Regardless of their introduction to flight, all young are adept at it soon after they take their initial leap.” – National Geographic Society