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Spacecraft Talk Continued During JPL Wildfire Threat



 
 
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Default Spacecraft Talk Continued During JPL Wildfire Threat

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=2308

Spacecraft Talk Continued During JPL Wildfire Threat
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 09, 2009

[photo]
The Station fire, which started on Aug. 26, devoured brush in the
foothills above JPL on Fri., Aug. 28.

As the flames of the raging brush fire dubbed the Station Fire
threatened the northern edge of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on
Saturday, Aug. 29, the managers of NASA's Deep Space Network prepared
for the worst.

The Deep Space Operations Center at JPL is the nerve center for the
Deep
Space Network, an international network of antennas that send and
receive information to interplanetary spacecraft. Staffed 24/7, 365
days
a year, the JPL hub is constantly active connecting three major
antenna
sites, numerous mission operation centers run by NASA and an
international group of space agencies, and more than 30 spacecraft
flying throughout our solar system.

"We were more like the nervous center that weekend than the nerve
center," said Wayne Sible of JPL, the network's deputy program manager
for Deep Space Network development, operations and services.

The Deep Space Network operations managers knew that, fire or no fire,
time was critical for sending software programs to and downloading
diagnostic information from several spacecraft, including the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter, which had an unexpected computer reboot the
day
the fire started on Aug. 26, and the Dawn spacecraft, on its way to
the
asteroid belt.

The network's antennas that send and receive information to
spacecraft,
located at Goldstone, in California's Mojave Desert; near Madrid,
Spain;
and near Canberra, Australia, were never in danger. But Sible and Jim
Hodder, the network's operations manager, got word on Friday, Aug. 28,
that the Station fire, which started in the San Gabriel Mountains
above
the Laboratory, was burning towards JPL. Emergency managers and senior
JPL administrators called for JPL to be closed, except for essential
personnel, on Friday evening.

A flurry of phone calls followed -- to the Deep Space Network team,
the
mission operation centers and ITT Systems Division, the contractor
that
provides the operators for the operations center at JPL.

On a phone call with Hodder, the team decided to move network
operators
to a facility in Monrovia, Calif., where other support work is
normally
conducted for the Deep Space Network. The Monrovia building - about 15
miles from JPL -- offered basic access to the critical systems, though
the operators would not be able to use personalized computer scripts
or
notes that facilitate their work.

It seemed practical, since activating the emergency control center at
the Goldstone complex in California's Mojave Desert would be more
disruptive and require some suspension of communications while they
moved staff 150 miles to that location.

Two of the five Deep Space Network operators on weekend duty were
sent
to Monrovia, but three volunteered to stay at the control center at
JPL,
to ensure systems continued to operate normally, to keep connections
open with the flight projects, and to maintain the flow of engineering
and science data to flight projects and scientists around the globe.

The three who stayed at JPL - along with about 40 other mission-
critical
personnel at any given time - were told not to spend much time
outside.
Hodder called frequently to check on the health of the crew and to
obtain status reports on the network.

On Saturday afternoon, Sible and Hodder were ready to pull out those
remaining three operators and put further communications with the
network on hold if the fire reached the Mesa, a flat helipad and
testing
site at the northern edge of JPL.

That afternoon, the fire burned to within an eighth of a mile of the
northern border of the lab. Emergency managers told staff to be ready
to
evacuate in 30 minutes.

Thankfully, with fire department handcrews cutting firebreaks,
helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping water and flame
retardant,
and the wind shifting, the danger passed on Saturday night. An
unpleasant haze of smoke settled on the lab, but the air had cleared
enough for the network operators in Monrovia to return to JPL Monday
evening. The rest of JPL opened as usual on Tuesday morning at 6 a.m.

In the end, the Deep Space Network was able to complete its 182
scheduled uploading and downloading sessions with spacecraft over the
weekend without interruption.

"It went very well," Sible said. "Nobody saw any hiccups whatsoever."

More information on the Deep Space Network is online at
http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/ .

 




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