’98Annual Report

Firstpage 15-09-1999 13:22 Page 1

BTHE ACTIVITIES

Scientific ProjectsScientific Research & Earth SciencesEarth ObservationTelecommunicationsSpace TransportationManned Spaceflight & MicrogravityTechnical & Operational SupportTechnologyInternational CooperationPublic RelationsPublications

XMM

Launch: January 2000Significant milestones were achieved in 1998 with thedelivery of the spacecraft flight equipment and suc-cessful completion and review of the spacecraft-leveltest campaigns for the structural and thermal modelat ESTEC and the electrical model at Dornier (D).

The assembly and integration activities on the flightspacecraft commenced at Dornier in January, bywhich time the majority of the flight equipment wasavailable. Late delivery dates were accommodated byre-scheduling the integration activities and streamlin-ing test plans wherever possible.

In late summer, however, it became clear that somepayload elements would only be available towardsthe end of the year. To keep the original launch date,major cuts would need to be made in the verificationplan for the flight spacecraft, increasing the overalltechnical risk beyond an acceptable level. A new planfor integration, test and launch was therefore estab-lished which mitigated the technical risk to an accept-able level whilst limiting the schedule and costimpacts for the overall project. In September, the pro-posal, with a new launch date in January 2000, wasreviewed and approved by the Director of Science.

Test activities on the Service Module of the spacecraft,unaffected by the late payload delivery, had started atESTEC during October according to the original plan.

The project team closely followed the SOHO recoveryactivities and carefully analysed the lessons learntwith the objective of increasing, where necessary, therobustness of the design of the XMM spacecraftagainst catastrophic loss of attitude. As a result, a setof possible improvements was identified and therelated modifications were implemented withoutdelay.

In December, three months ahead of schedule, ESAformally handed over the flight mirror modules toDornier. The three mirror modules form the core of theXMM payload, projecting the X-ray picture of the skyonto the instrument detectors. As the major techno-logical challenge of the project, the mirror moduleswere developed and built under direct ESA responsi-bility by Media Lario (I). All mirror modules signifi-cantly exceed the specified performance.

The ground-segment development proceeded suc-cessfully and the first combined testing of the groundcontrol software together with the flight spacecraft

was conducted in October. The next combined sys-tem-level test will be run in early 1999.

Preparations are now underway for the release to thescientific community of the remote proposal submis-sion system, which will be available via the WorldWide Web (WWW) in early 1999. This will provide thetool for scientists from all over the World to proposeobservations to be made by XMM in orbit.

After the successful qualification of the Ariane-5launcher, interface verification using the dataobtained from the qualification flights confirmed thecurrent XMM spacecraft design. Preparations for thedetailed definition of the launch campaign are wellunderway.

Scientific Projects

The XMM spacecraft structural and thermal model under test atESTEC (NL)

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Cluster-II

Launches (two): Mid-2000, about one month apartDuring the year, industry throughout Europe manu-factured the various spacecraft units and the major-ity of the equipment for the first two new flight space-craft has been delivered. The units that have beenchanged since the original Cluster mission, the solid-state recorder and high-power amplifier, have suc-cessfully completed their qualification programme.The integration of the first new spacecraft (FM6) hasproceeded according to plan. The complete payload isinstalled and the spacecraft will undergo system func-tional testing early in 1999, before being shipped toIABG in Munich in March 1999 for the environmentaltest programme. Integration on the second flight

model (FM7) has also started and will follow FM6 byapproximately three months.

All payload deliveries are going according to scheduleand calibrations have been performed with onlyminor problems.

During the year, the launch-services contract wassigned with the Franco-Russian Starsem consortium.This covers the provision of two Soyuz launch vehi-cles with Fregat upper stages to be launched fromBaikonur in Kazakhstan in the middle of 2000. Thiscontract includes an insurance clause, which providesfor a back-up launch on an Ariane-4 if long delaysshould arise in the Soyuz-Fregat development sched-ule. Fregat is a new upper stage and the contract

Integration of one of the Cluster-II flight models (FM6), at Dornier (D)

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stipulates that two successful Soyuz-Fregat launchesmust be completed before the Cluster-II launch.

The decision was taken to move the main antenna tobe used for the Cluster-II operations phase fromOdenwald in Germany to Villafranca in Spain. Thismove has started and will be completed in time forthe launch preparations for Cluster-II. All other main-tenance/upgrade activities for the ground-segmenthardware and software are progressing satisfactorily.

The Cluster Science Data System and Joint ScienceOperations Centre have been in a partial hibernationmode, with only software updates for the processingof the scientific data being performed. Towards theend of the year, plans for re-commissioning and test-ing have been discussed and agreed with all parties.

Integral

Launch: September 20011998 marked a turning point for the Integral project.After many years of design, planning and develop-ment, the integration and testing of most of the mis-sion elements have started.

Entry of the Integral spacecraft’s structural and thermal model into the Large Space Simulator at ESTEC (NL)

The main emphasis in the early part of the year wason the preparation of the Structural Thermal Model(STM) programme. The STM of the whole satellite,including representative instrument STMs, was inte-grated at Alenia’s premises in Italy and shipped toESTEC for environmental testing in early May. Thisprogramme was successfully completed in October.

A Hardware Design Review was held in earlySeptember, prior to the Engineering Model (EM) sys-tem-level activities. Successful completion of thisreview allowed the work on the EM to begin. Despitedelays in the deliveries of instrument EMs and con-tinuous troubleshooting for the core electricalground-support equipment, significant progress hasbeen made.

Recent reviews of the delivery schedule for the instru-ment flight models led to the conclusion that thelaunch date of April 2001 could not be maintained.Extensive work-around activities are being imple-mented, and a launch at the beginning of the autumn2001 window is currently estimated as the best pos-sible target.

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In response to science concerns, an alternative 72hour orbit has been baselined to maximise the timethat the spacecraft spends above 60 000 km duringeach orbit.

ESA’s contribution to the Proton launcher-interfacestudies and the Integral-specific adaptations havebeen clarified in meetings with the Russian side.Good progress was made and agreement on themajor technical and programmatic aspects has beenachieved. Nevertheless, full implementation of theseagreements is still pending the entry into force of theESA/RSA Integral Arrangement.

Work on Ariane-5 as the backup launcher has contin-ued throughout the year. A draft Interface ControlDocument (ICD) has been produced and will berefined during 1999.

Progress has been made in detailing both the mana-gerial and technical interfaces between all partiesinvolved with the ground segment. Procurement ofthe hardware and software components for each ofthe elements has started. A review of the status of thecomplete ground segment is in progress.

Rosetta

Launch: January 2003The ESA Industrial Policy Committee (IPC), meeting inParis on 26 November, gave the final approval for theRosetta main development (Phase-C/D) contract. Thisconcludes a rather complex selection process for theindustrial contractors, which has at times seen veryheavy competition within European industry, butwhich has ultimately enabled the given geographical-return targets to be closely met.

The procurement of a new 35 m Deep-Space Antennahas also been finalised and the contract signed withSED (Canada), leading a consortium of Europeanindustries. Currently the proposed site for the anten-na, in Perth, Western Australia, is being negotiatedwith the relevant authorities.

The spacecraft design has made considerableprogress. A stable instrument-accommodation config-uration has been achieved and the first round ofmechanical and thermal analysis is complete. After anumber of iterations, the spacecraft thermal designhas been confirmed to be feasible with the limitsimposed by the solar-array power available up to dis-tances of 5.5 AU from the Sun. Considerable efforthas also been devoted to the design of the spacecraftonboard software, which is extremely schedule criti-cal. This issue has been assessed in detail by a jointESA/Industry working group. The software design isexpected to be fully consolidated at the SoftwareRequirements Review in February 1999.

As a conclusion to the project Phase-B, an extensiveseries of reviews has closely scrutinised the designand the development status of all Rosetta missionelements, including the spacecraft, instrument pay-load, ground segment and launcher. The RosettaLander has also been the subject of a specific designreview by an independent team, which has confirmedthe validity of the proposed design and praised theexcellent engineering solutions in many critical areas.

Without ignoring the very critical overall schedule sit-uation, the Mission System Design Review Board con-cluded in early December that there is good confi-dence of mission success for all elements.

FIRST/Planck

Launch: 2007The Science Programme’s effort to put both FIRST andPlanck on a firm and affordable basis made progressduring the year.

In early March, instrument proposals were receivedfrom five scientific consortia, three for FIRST and twofor Planck. These payload proposals were endorsedby peer review and approved by the ScienceProgramme Committee (SPC) at its May meeting.

The mission baseline studies had been carried outboth in industry and by the Agency, covering threeoptions: FIRST and Planck spacecraft with independ-ent launches; FIRST and Planck spacecraft using a sin-gle launch vehicle; and a simple spacecraft combiningthe FIRST and Planck missions.

Engineering model of the Radiation Environment Monitor for theIntegral scientific mission, built by Contraves Space (CH)

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At the May SPC meeting, the option of two spacecrafton one launch vehicle was adopted as the missionbaseline, with a launch date in 2007, and a cost tar-get of 654 M€, which is well below the previous costestimates.

The scientific consortia activities commenced in earlysummer with a detailed definition of the technical andprogrammatic aspects of their instruments and theirscientific data centres.

Joint discussions with national funding agencies, prin-cipal investigators and the Agency were held to inves-tigate possibilities for reducing the constraints onfunding of the scientific payloads expressed byDelegations.

One of the key recommendations of the selectionprocess had been to bring forward the system design

of the Planck payload with its complex cryogenictechnology. A Planck payload architect (Alcatel, F)has been selected, via an open tender, to conduct aone-year study. A Straylight Working Group com-posed of independent scientists has been set up todeal with this specific aspect.

In addition, FIRST and Planck scientists have alsoidentified in detail those elements of their payloadsand interfaces which might benefit from commondevelopment.

Co-operation with NASA has been pursued on theFIRST telescope. JPL is developing a scaled-downCFRP demonstration model, representative of the final3.5 m main reflector for the telescope.

The Canadian Space Agency has shown interest inparticipating in the FIRST/Planck mission and

Artist’s impression of the Mars Express orbiter

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contacts are planned in early 1999 to define possiblecontributions.

ESA-funded technological developments (cryo-cool-ers, detectors, data-processing software) for key pay-load elements have progressed during the year. Inparticular a 1.35 m silicon-carbide demonstrationreflector was manufactured by a consortium led byMatra Marconi Space (F). This new technology isshowing very good potential and is being developedas a back-up to the NASA-JPL CFRP telescope, shouldthis technology fail to deliver the necessary perform-ance.

Future Science Projects

1998 was a busy year for future science projects. Inaddition to starting the industrial studies for theCornerstone missions GAIA, LISA, IRSI and MercuryMission, a significant effort was devoted to the prepa-ration of the SMART-1 mission and to the definition ofa science technology programme. The highlight of theyear, however, was the successful implementation ofa new approach to project study and mission selec-tion, as demonstrated by the unanimous approval bythe Science Programme Committee of the MarsExpress mission in November. The approach takenwas to combine several hitherto separate phases ofthe procurement process into a single phase of activi-ty, thereby saving about three years compared withthe old assessment and selection cycle. Future coop-eration with NASA on the Next-Generation SpaceTelescope (NGST) was also studied extensively duringthe year.

The aim with all of these activities is to define a pro-gramme of science missions that are World-class, butwithin a budget that is affordable. All of the missionsare demanding and, if implemented, would putEuropean industry and scientists in a leading positionvis-a-vis the rest of the World.

Prodex

Prodex is an optional scientific programme estab-lished to provide funding for the industrial develop-

ment of scientific instruments or experiments pro-posed by Institutes or Universities, and selected byESA for one of its programmes (science, microgravity,Earth observation, etc.). The Agency provides bothadministrative and financial management knowhowand technical support.

The Member States currently participating in Prodexare: Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Norway,Denmark and Hungary. Negotiations regarding theCzech Republic’s participation have been continued,and Portugal, Poland and Rumania have reiteratedtheir interest in joining in the near future.

The projects being developed range from small ERSdata-analysis programmes to fully-fledged instru-ments for scientific payloads. The following experi-ments or experiment subsystems were finalised dur-ing the year:

STS-95• Advanced Protein Crystallisation Facility• Hitchhiker Experiment• Biobox Experiment• Facility for Adsorption and Surface Tension• Sleep and Respiration Disturbance Analysis• Advanced Gradient Heating Facility.

XMM• Telescope Module Power Supply Unit for the

Optical Monitor• Detection Box for the Reflection Grating Spectrom-

eter Experiment.

ERS• Oil-Spill Monitoring.

OERSTED• Ground-Segment Preparation.

IMAGE• Ultraviolet Spectral Imager.

In addition, several design efforts are still in progress,such as the work on the engineering model of theRadiation Environment Monitor for the IntegralMission.