Dawn Journal - May 29, 2006

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/journal_05_29_06.asp

Dawn Journal
Dr. Marc D. Rayman
May 29, 2006

Dear Dawnologists,

Dawn is making good progress in preparing for its 2007 launch. Let's
look forward to some of what must happen during the next year on the
most visible part of the Dawn project, the spacecraft, to prepare for
its launch. We will discuss other tasks, such as training operations
team members, formulating details of the science data acquisition
plans,
finalizing the software to be used by mission controllers, selecting
the
ascent trajectory for the rocket, designing Dawn pins, shirts, tattoos,
etc., in later logs.

In the previous log (which, it may be revealed with pride, has been
nominated for Spam of the Year awards on fewer than 10 planets per
galaxy averaged over the full spatial range of readership), it was
reported that the spacecraft already was about 90% assembled. It may
seem surprising then that Dawn still has a very full Earth-bound year
ahead of it. One reason is that attaching any of the sophisticated
hardware systems to the spacecraft is a very exacting, and thus time
consuming, process.

Most of the units on the spacecraft are complex, expensive,
custom-built
devices that must be handled with extraordinary care to minimize the
risk of damage. In some cases, repair or replacement could take months
or even years. Unlike production-line products, such as aircraft, cars,
computers, and those nifty thought-controlled confectionery machines
that are popular in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Dawn spacecraft
design is being assembled for the first time and there won't be an
opportunity for a second chance. That calls for extreme care in every
step.

Before any electrical device is connected, a painstaking procedure is
followed to verify that all wires carry the signals they are supposed
to. We cannot risk that some undetected damage to a connector might
create a short circuit or that an error in the wiring, or even in the
documentation for the wiring, might lead to too much power being
delivered to a sensitive electrical component.

All mechanical connections have to be checked carefully as well, to be
sure that they do not place undue stress on other parts that could lead
to misalignments of components or structural weakening that might
compromise the spacecraft. Every device is attached securely enough to
survive launch but not so tightly that something is damaged or
distorted.

To reduce the possibility of human error, each step in the long process
of assembling the spacecraft is planned and documented in detail. The
work executed meticulously by one technician or engineer is observed by
another who also carefully inspects the workmanship.

While each of us is eager to get Dawn on its way, rushing this work is
unwise. Once it has embarked upon its cosmic travels, repairing any
electrical or mechanical problems generally will be extremely difficult
or impossible. (During its voyage, Dawn will be more than 1.5 million
times farther from Earth than astronauts who work on the International
Space Station; emergency roadside assistance will be quite
unavailable.)
While many mission control teams have accomplished remarkably
innovative
repairs on remote spacecraft, or learned to work around irreparable
damage, expending the effort before launch to prevent problems after
launch is the best recipe for success. That brings us to the work that
will be the primary focus of the combined Orbital Sciences
Corporation/JPL team between now and launch.

Dawn's mission to explore alien worlds we have only glimpsed from afar
will be an extremely arduous one, so we will subject the spacecraft to
extensive testing to verify that it is up to the challenge. Each
component receives a battery of tests during its own assembly before
being brought to the spacecraft, but the majority of the testing that
awaits Dawn is on the spacecraft as a whole to make sure that all
systems work together correctly and perform as intended in their
installed configurations.

Most of the rest of this spring (note: all seasons herein refer to
Earth's northern hemisphere -- nonresident readers, consult your
almanacs) will be devoted to the first set of comprehensive performance
tests, putting hardware and software subsystems now on the spacecraft
through their paces. (Following the tradition nearly as ancient and
revered as nerdiness itself, these tests are generally referred to by
an
acronym -- CPTs.) In addition to helping establish that the subsystems
perform as they are designed to, the first set of CPTs will establish a
reference against which to compare the results of subsequent runs of
the
same CPTs, thereby showing that other tests performed on the spacecraft
did not damage it. The CPTs have already been executed on simulators to
make sure that they work correctly so that valuable time with the
spacecraft is used effectively.

Although the spacecraft is in an environmentally controlled facility (a
"clean room," quite unlike my office) most of the systems on it came
with a small inventory of chemicals that could contaminate some of the
sensitive surfaces when Dawn is in space. Therefore, during the heat of
the Dulles, Virginia summer, the spacecraft will be baked for about a
week in a vacuum chamber to drive off these undesirable contaminants.
(Note: while the chamber will be much hotter than the outdoors at
Orbital Sciences, the vacuum will make it less humid than Dulles.
Nevertheless, this environment is not recommended even for those who
prefer dry heat.) CPTs will be repeated afterwards to verify that no
harm was inflicted during the relocation or the baking.

During the gorgeous Virginia autumn, the Dawn team will conduct a
series
of tests designed to prove that the spacecraft can withstand the
environmental conditions it will face during launch. It will be exposed
to the thunderous noise that will rumble around it in the rocket as
well
as vibration, shock waves, and electromagnetic fields.

Despite the inability to predict weather far in advance, the Dawn team
already knows that the winter will be a time of great temperature
variation. In preparation for what it will experience during
spaceflight, the spacecraft will once again be placed in a thermal
vacuum chamber, but for much longer than the bake-out. Over the course
of about a month, Dawn will experience sweltering heat and biting cold,
and it will have to prove that it can operate as designed throughout
the
range.

While we do not want there to be problems, finding them here on Earth
would be far superior to discovering them when Dawn is in the far
reaches of deep space. Although human readers might consider all these
tests to be punishing in the extreme, it is worth recalling that much
of
the work in designing the spacecraft was devoted to ensuring that the
system would be able to operate under such harsh conditions. The tests
over the coming year will give Dawn just a preview of what it will
spend
most of its productive life experiencing as it strives to accomplish
its
raison d'?tre.

Throughout the coming year, certain components will be removed or
installed at times planned carefully to fit in the complex campaign to
get Dawn safely to space. One simple example is the ion thrusters, the
most salient part of the ion propulsion system. Two of the three
thrusters project from the spacecraft (see, for example,
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft.asp and the thrusters
depicted in gray on the lower left and right at
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/...linder_300.jpg), and these
precise and delicate devices could be damaged by the highly skilled,
albeit human, workers who are performing other tasks on the spacecraft.
So mock-ups with the same mass will be used during some of the tests.

For most of the tests, special sensors, such as contamination monitors
or accelerometers, will be installed temporarily. Between environmental
tests and after the spacecraft is transported from one facility to
another, CPTs or, in some cases, more limited performance tests (you
guessed it -- LPTs) will be conducted to aid in the assessment of the
effects of the test on our robotic explorer.

When Dawn passes all of its tests, it will be rewarded in the same way
many humans a it will take a road trip to Florida for spring
vacation. Not far from the warm waters and sandy beaches of Cape
Canaveral, Dawn will be given the final tests to verify that it was not
harmed in shipment. The ion propulsion system's xenon tank will be
filled with 425 kg (937 pounds) of xenon, and the reaction control
system (used to help rotate the spacecraft, but not to propel it to
Vesta and Ceres) will be loaded with about 45 kg (100 pounds) of
hydrazine propellant. There will be flurry of other activity as well,
as
Dawn presents its last opportunity to be tested and readied for flight.
Of course, the plan is for Dawn to leave Florida by a very different
route from the one by which it arrived.

Dawn will have an exciting adventure after launch as it travels through
the solar system, some of the time without company and some with Vesta
or with Ceres. But its last trip around the Sun while still on its
planet of origin will be no less busy.