From Liz Citrin:

SDO Weekly Report for August 20, 2004

The AETD Champion Review of SDO subsystem budget, schedule and status
was held on Monday.  The review, co-chaired by the Project and the SDO
"Champion" Dennis Andrucyk, was attended by the LWS Program Manager and
the SDO Program Executive.  The Project feels that the Champion meetings
provide a valuable forum for interaction with AETD technical management
on SDO progress and issues.

The Project risk meeting focused on the Ka-band transmitter, with a
discussion of progress and risk mitigation plans by the subsystem lead
and transmitter designer.  As reported at MSR, Breadboard #3 of the Solid
State Power Amplifier (SSPA) has achieved mission performance requirements.
This retires a major design risk.  However, potential SSPA performance
degradation over mission life remains a risk.  Preparations for an
accelerated life test are in progress.  TriQuint, the vendor of the
Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) devices used in the SSPA,
will perform the die attachment of the life test samples; additional
samples will be evaluated for attachment results.  Life test results
should be available in early November.  As backup, a Traveling Wave
Tube Assembly (TWTA) approach will be pursued.  The subsystem lead,
Mike Powers, has received some responses to a TWTA RFI and will move
forward on preparations of a Spec and SOW for a procurement. The Systems
team will coordinate an evaluation of the impacts of a TWTA approach.
A November decision is planned.

A meeting was held between SDO Project Management, Quality Assurance
and the Attitude Control Electronics (ACE) team to discuss the outcome
of risk reduction efforts  relating to board manufacturability of the
ACE backplane.  Discussions centered on solderability concerns related
to the original ACE backplane design, which had up to 7 interconnects on
plated through holes, causing difficulty in obtaining adequate solder fill
and wetting.  The consensus of the group was that the work shows that the
number of interconnect to any one plated thru hole should be limited to 4
(& 4 oz. of copper) or less. This modification will greatly improve the
solderability characteristics of the redesigned Printed Circuit Board.
This interconnect limitation will be disseminated to all SDO designers.

The weekly SDO systems meeting addressed the development and use of the
SDO Flatsat, which uses ETU hardware to act as a test, verification
and simulation testbed for the project. The meeting centered around
Flatsat responsibilities, location, and use and was attended by the
various disciplines on the team that make up the Flatsat contributors
and users. Technical discussions were also held on in-house flight board
design and manufacturing issues as part of preparing for ETU and flight
designs, focusing on ensuring the proper mechanical/thermal analysis is
conducted to guide flight board manufacturing approaches, investigation
of current manufacturing approaches and potential process improvements,
and specific parts mounting issues and strategies to accommodate ETU/Flight
board design issues.

Progress on the ACE box was good this week with receipt of the reaction
wheel card and completion of ASD card testing.

An RFI was released for a Digital Sun Sensor. The Gimbal Control
Electronics (GCE) Subsystem Data Node (SDN) Core was successfully tested
by Flight Software personnel and delivered to High Gain Antenna Subsystem
personnel. A Kaparel chassis was received and is in process of being
modified for integration and testing of the GCE SDN Core Breadboard and
GCE Application Specific Design (ASD) Breadboard

C&DH received 9 Overlay cards. 4 of cards had to be returned for rework
due to drilled holes being out of tolerance. This rework has not affected
subsystem progress, as there were enough boards for subsystems to continue
work. The Propulsion subsystem reported having difficulty getting welds
certified. SDO?s AETD Champion has offered assistance in persuading
current contractor to provide more support, and is also seeking to identify
another contractor that can assist the propulsion subsystem in this effort.

LMSAL and SDO reached agreement on the AIA Phase C/D/E contract fee
plan. LMSAL completed their subcontract preparations with SAO and a
baseline schedule is being prepared for next week's quarterly project
review. The SAO SOW and Telescope Assembly specification were released
and the development effort continues with the fabrication of numerous
Structural Model (SM) prototype components and ordering of surrogate
mirrors for coating development. Development testing results for
the 193A channel were evaluated and final fabrication parameters were
selected. Testing of the mounting leg ball-joint successfully demonstrated
reproducible pre-load with a Belleville washer design.

A preliminary radiation ray trace analysis of the AIA optics package was
completed. Gamma and proton radiation testing of the HMI/AIA mechanisms
encoder boards is currently in process. Layout of the housekeeping board
was completed and is being sent out for fabrication.

The mechanism board for HMI has been assembled and the oven controller and
oven pre-amp boards are currently in assembly. The executive peer review
for the SUROM is complete with no major issues identified. The kernel
development and STOL procedures for the SUROM testing is progressing for
an acceptance test target date of August 26. The packaging analysis of
the SECCHI waveform generator (WFG) ASIC used in the Camera Electronics
Box has started. A test plan for has been finalized, and the first step in
the plan has been completed. Expected results from the WFG ASIC analysis
are due in early September. The HCM life test motors are being assembled
and the life test is due to begin in mid-September.

EVE is making good progress with the demonstration CCDs and supporting
mechanical structure.  Electronics development at LASP is lagging
somewhat--the FPGAs found in the power services card and the Instrument
controller electronics card are now considered the critical path items
and the EVE Project Manager is focusing attention on the FPGA development
lead by Neil White.  Recent progress includes several electronics peer
reviews held this month with participation by Steven Graham of code 500.
The EVE team continues to work to define the instrument contamination
requirements. The SDO Contamination Control Plan was baselined this week
without all of EVE?s requirements. A CCR to the Plan will be necessary
when the analyses are complete later this month.

The ground system has performed week long testing on the new In-Snec Front
End Processor (FEP). The unit is working very well so far. Also, the TSI
FEP continues to work with no problems other than the original 'start-up'
problems one month ago. A possible third FEP vendor has become known and
the ground system team is investigating the possibility of receiving a
demo on this unit.  The Ground System Readiness team presented the 'road
to CDR' at the ground system System Engineering meeting on Monday. This
presentation went well.

Proofs for all four Planet Walk Sun panels (on the B&A trail) have been
approved. The panels are now in fabrication and will be delivered on time
for the September 18th Grand Opening.  A meeting was held to discuss the
next planet on the agenda: PLUTO.  Present were the SDO E/PO Goddard
staff, representatives from the Planet Walk Committee, and E/PO staff
from APL. APL has agreed to participate and will be providing text,
images and graphics for the Pluto panels.

--
Liz Citrin
SDO Project Manager
301-286-1222
FAX 301-286-0214
Cell 410-241-0503