ACE Weekly 02/13/04 - 02/19/04

All ACE spacecraft subsystems are performing nominally. An attitude 
maneuver was successfully executed on 02/16/04. The next attitude maneuver 
is scheduled to occur on 02/23/04.

============================================================================
Orbit Events:

Per Craig Roberts (FDF):
The next ACE transit begins February 22 and ends March 15 (a span of 22.49 
days). This one will involve the closest angular approach to the Sun yet 
seen, i.e., 0.63 degree (deg) from solar center. (By comparison, the solar 
angular radius as seen from Earth at that epoch will be approx. 0.27 deg). 
The updated details and epochs (UTC) follow:

22 Feb 05:22 4.75 deg inbound
28 Feb 15:51 2.0  deg inbound
1 Mar  17:19 1.19 deg inbound
3 Mar  21:57 0.63 deg closest approach
6 Mar  13:40 1.19 deg outbound
8 Mar  17:55 2.0  deg outbound
15 Mar 16:14 4.75 deg outbound

The 1.19 deg reference was included because that was the closest approach 
during the December transit. ACE will spend 4.85 days within the 1.19 deg zone.

=====================================================================
OCRs Executed:

None.

=====================================================================
Ongoing Activities:

TAPS:
- Release 4.2 was delivered on 02/12/04 and is currently being tested by 
the FOT. This release should contain the functionality required to 
transition from GTAS to TAPS. The next release 4.2.1 is tentatively 
scheduled for 03/03/04.
- FOT has submitted comments to TAPS System User's Guide and are in the 
process of creating FPD activities to incorporate TAPS into day-to-day 
operations.
- Plans for transition from GTAS to TAPS are being discussed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Automation (ROBOTT):
- Release 0.4 (HSM & OFFLINE) is operational on String 1.
- OFFLINE: Testing of the fixed DRs is progressing well. One DR remains to 
be tested.
- HSM: 2 DRs have been fixed on String 3; one has been verified and the 
other is still under test by the FOT.
- COMMAND&CONTROL: All 6 DRs for C&C have been fixed and have been verified 
on String 3.
- RTMON:  There have been some minor problems encountered while testing the 
real-time monitor and the real-time tasks. Most of the problems involved 
tasks not being performed either by CRON or the "Start Real Time" button. 
Testing will continue with real-time monitor failover/reboot process. A 
true string failover test will not happen until the real-time monitor is 
moved over to String 2.
- Testing of the next release and verification of all DRs apart of the next 
release should be finished by 2/27. It has tentatively been decided to 
install the next release on String 2 on 3/1 after the maneuver.

============================================================================
Extra Spacecraft Activities:

None

=====================================================================
Anomalies:

DOY 04047 (02/16/04) ACE Anomaly G04-0011 - MOPSS Errors
While launching MOPSS in support of maneuver activities received errors 
suggesting a configuration failure.  Re-initialized MOPSS and was still not 
able to bring up software.  A second re-initialization of MOPSS was 
successful and no further problems were encountered.  IMPACT:  None.  The 
TPOCC displays on AC1XT3 were not terminated.  This probably due to 
Automation bringing up TPOCC instead of manually doing it.  Killing MOPSS 
usually results in terminating the TPOCC displays attached to this 
workstation if TPOCC is initialized manually. Everything was working fine 
by the time the pass started.

DOY 04044 (02/13/04) ACE Anomaly G04-0012 - UNIX Environment Variable Limit
On String 3 during automation testing, the FOT found that when too many 
environment variables are defined the shell will no longer be able to run 
programs and will give the error message "Arg list too long."  IMPACT:  The 
problem has appeared as Automation is increasing the number of environment 
variables and calling programs (e.g. ClockCal.sh) that also have a long 
list of environment variables.  Automation developers have been made aware 
of the problem and are mindful of the number of environment variables defined.

DOY 04049 (02/18/04) ACE Anomaly G04-0013 - Don't issue /RESUME after 
LOCKOUT condition
While testing how TPOCC reacts to being LOCKED out, it was found that TPOCC 
commanding crashes. (ACE has not been in LOCKOUT since receiving Release 
5.2 in 2002).  IMPACT:  None.  When commanding is LOCKED out, the SA should 
direct the SC to clear the command buffer of the bad command using /CLEAR) 
and not /RESUME.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glen A. Miller
ACE Flight Operations Observatory Engineer
Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc.
Goddard Space Flight Center
Building 14, Room W10A
Mail Stop 428.2
Greenbelt, MD 20771

Office: 301-286-7071
Pager: 800-425-3174
Fax:    301-286-1729
Email: gamiller@pop500.gsfc.nasa.gov
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~