Subject: SDO Weekly Report for August 27, 2004
From: David Ward <David.K.Ward--AT--nasa.gov>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 17:02:36 -0400

SDO Weekly Report for August 27, 2004

The first face-to-face Instrument Quarterly Reviews for the AIA and
HMI instruments were held at Palo Alto, CA, this week.  In addition
to overall status by Project Management, presentations of subsystem
status and issues were given by the Instruments' subsystem leads; Key
SAO team members supported the AIA review.  The Project appreciated the
opportunity to understand in more detail the accomplishments and issues
of the instrument developments.  The Project visited the HMI facilities
at Stanford, and the AIA and HMI facilities at LMSAL..

The first Technical Interchange Meeting was held between GSFC and the SDO
HGAS Gimbal Actuator vendor, Starsys.  A group of Mechanical, Quality,
and Project engineers traveled out to Boulder to meet the Starsys team and
work through details of the HGAS' gimbal actuator design.  Evaluation of
proposals is on-going for next HGA component, the ECRA (either a roll-ring
or slip ring), and documentation for the RFA rotary joints (also part
of the HGAS system) will go to CCB next week.  In other procurement
news, the Propellant Tank, Main Engine, and ACS Thruster procurements
are all in proposal review, and responses are being prepared to send to
Pressure Regulator vendors.  Also, proposals are expected next week for
the Attitude Control System's Reaction Wheels, Inertial Reference Unit,
and Star Trackers.

With regard to our in-house avionics designs, efforts continued on a
variety of breadboards. The first PCC Breadboard was completed by Northrup
Grumman and delivered to the SPN Lead for functional testing.  The HGAS
GIC Breadboard and the C&DH S Com Breadboard  were in assembly, and an
initial set of backplane overlay boards were delivered this week.    Also,
the first set of Hypertronics cPCI connectors were delivered on Friday.
These connectors provide a solderable, flight-quality replacement for
typical press-fit cPCI connectors.  Another delivery is scheduled for
mid-September.

SDO Thermal Engineers have determined that heater zones will no longer
be concentrated near instrument optics package's mounting feet due to
possible thermal distortions they may impose at this interface.  Instead,
the heaters will be mounted to control different zones of the panel (not
at the instrument interface), and may be designed with set-points so
that the heaters are nominally powered off.  Contamination requirements
were received from EVE and will be incorporated into the Contamination
Control Plan.

The ground station antenna RFA response period ended this week.  It appears
that four viable vendors have responded.  Associated with that, the Ground
System Manager has asked for support from the Division Chiefs of Codes
450 and 560 with evaluation of these responses.  The ground system team
has had six additional ASIST workstations configured and these are being
delivered for development efforts throughout the project.  Facility work
is progressing on the MOC, which is scheduled for completion by the first
of the year.

Finally, the push to baseline SDO's documentation continued last week with
a CCB review of the Propulsion Pyrovalve Specification and Statement
of Work.  Many more procurement documents are in final review now,
including Specifications and Statements of Work for the Battery, the S-Band
Transponders, the Ka-Band Waveguide Switch, and the Digital Sun Sensor.


David Ward
NASA/GSFC
(301) 286-2170