ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 1 Monthly Status Report Report due 1/25/01 Schedule statused as of Dec. 22, 2000

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 2 Project Status Summary Technical Nov Dec Jan Detailed Description: (for items identified as yellow or red) Programmatic Nov Dec Jan Schedule Nov Dec Jan Resources Nov Dec Jan The blackening of the ELS flight parts by MSSL / Walton Plating is complete. The parts are being hand carried back to SwRI on 1/24/01 for vacuum bakeout and then final assembly. The blackening looks good. We completed testing of the Calibration System and process at MSSL with the ELS prototype. We (SwRI, IRF & MSSL) are now ready for the flight ELS calibration at MSSL. We successfully delivered the IMA detector flight and flight spare subassemblies to IRF. Submittal of the DD250 for government acceptance of the hardware is the only remaining IMA hardware task. Latest project photos and videos are available on Aspera-3 web site.photosvideos

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 3 Problem and Concern Summary P=Problem C=Concern R=Resolved

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 4 Accomplishments of the Last Month -ELS Temporarily assembled the flight unit with the precision pieces for a “quick” aliveness test prior to delivering the parts to MSSL for blackening. Successfully performed aliveness test At SwRI, completed troubleshooting the ELS prototype and the MSSL calibration setup. Hand delivered the ELS prototype, the MSSL cal setup, and the parts to be blackened to MSSL. Supported Prototype Calibration at MSSL with IRF. The Calibration system and procedures are now in place and ready for the flight calibration. MSSL / Walton Plating completed blackening of the flight housing, inner deflection plate and tophat. Both the housing and the inner deflection plate (the high precision parts) look very good. The “flight” tophat plate has some very slight blemishes in the blackening. The parts are to be hand carried back to SwRI to arrive 1/24/01. All three parts will then be vacuum baked out. It was decided to remove the tophat off of the currently assembled flight spare and following vacuum bakeout of the flight parts on 1/29/01, an inspection of both the flight and flight spare tophat would be made. The part with the better blackening will then be used for flight. The other will be reassembled to the flight spare.

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 5 Accomplishments of the Last Month - IMA The IMA flight and flight spare detector subassemblies were successfully delivered to and received by IRF on 1/10/01. ASPERA-3 personnel were trained in how to assemble the units with MCPs and how to run a functional test on the IMA subassemblies. A draft of the DD250 for the delivery of the IMA hardware has been submitted to the NMO for their concurrence / approval. This is the final IMA hardware activity.

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 6 Accomplishments of the Last Month - Data Reduction Software Worked on APAF Software Requirements Specification (SRS) –APAF Software Requirements Review is now set to be held at the next ASPERA-3 Team Meeting in Kiruna, Sweden (March 6-7, 2001) Continued Packet Definitions for ELS Continued Providing Technical Assistance for EPO Web Information Continued Defining and Implementing IDFS Web Tools Held monthly ASPERA-3 Software Status Meeting (January 23, 2001)

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 7 Planned Activities for the Next Month - ELS Bakeout flight blackened parts. Inspect and choose which tophat is for the flight unit and which is for the flight spare. Assemble the flight unit and reassemble the flight spare. Perform environmental test on the ELS flight unit (vibration and thermal vac). Perform characterization testing of the ELS flight unit. Perform characterization testing of the ELS flight spare.

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 8 Planned Activities for the Next Month - IMA Complete the DD250 for IMA receipt and acceptance.

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 9 Planned Activities for the Next Month - Data Reduction Software Tasks Release Draft APAF Software Requirements Specification (SRS) Continue Packet Definitions for ELS Continue Providing Technical Assistance for EPO Web Information Continue Defining and Implementing IDFS Web Tools Provide Software Support for ELS/IMA Characterization as Needed

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 10 Problem and Concern Status None at this time.

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 11 Schedule Summary ELS: We are still on track with the ELS schedule first discussed with the NMO on 12/07/00. We still have 5 days contingency in the schedule for shipping the ELS flight unit to MSSL for calibration on Feb. 27. (Actual current plan is to hand carry the flight unit to MSSL 3/4/01 en route to the next ASPERA-3 team meeting to be held 3/6-3/7 in Kiruna, SE. This provides an additional 4 days contingency). Software: Some software activities have been delayed due to hardware activities. The overall delivery of the software to support mission operations however continues to be on schedule. The full-up schedule is available on the ASPERA-3 Web site.schedule

ASPERA-3 Jan. 25, 01 Monthly Status Report ASPERA Monthly Status ReportMonthly 1_25/ Page 12 ASPERA-3 PHASE B/C/D MASTER SCHEDULE