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Nineteen years of HIFI. Frank Helmich – Principal Investigator for HIFI. Time-line. 1998 – Announcement of Opportunity 1999 – Acceptance of HIFI proposal 2007 – Delivery of the Flight Instrument to ESA 2009 – Launch of Herschel 2009 – The HIFI anomaly
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Nineteen years of HIFI Frank Helmich – Principal Investigator for HIFI
Time-line • 1998 – Announcement of Opportunity • 1999 – Acceptance of HIFI proposal • 2007 – Delivery of the Flight Instrument to ESA • 2009 – Launch of Herschel • 2009 – The HIFI anomaly • 2010 – Restart of HIFI with redundant side • 2013 – End of Helium and start of post-operations • 2016 – End of post-operations
HIFI is a large project • Many people are attracted in the development days • Some as rooftile, some temporarily • The number of people in Groningen is doubled, but is it enough? • The atmosphere is vibrant, but also tense from time to time • Problems are solved, but... • Schedule is very tight
Consortium meeting juli 2000 Villa Tuscolana Frascati
WBS/HRS selection • There is not enough money for two spectrometers • ESA also insists on simplification • What to do? Descoping? That means a review • One of the national leads explodes during the consortium meeting (my first) • In the end we fly both HRS & WBS and the peace is restored! • How come?
Why remained the consortium intact? • We share the same goal – getting the instrument done • We experience the peer pressure – we don´t want to be less than the others • We do something nobody has ever done before – that is difficult and exciting • We avoid that others loose face • In reviews we express the problems we find • We share knowledge • We try to have an open development culture • Consortium meetings are always well attended – Also now the ICC co-locations have an attendance of over 30 people
Steps towards launch • Integration on the satellite is slow • We go from review to review and finally we are accepted in the Instrument Flight Acceptance Review • Operations also has simulations and review after review – finally we have the Commisioning Phase Review • We can start preparing for launch – we have the SRON lottery • We start booking, but face delay after delay. In the end we fly, but are not sure if we have accomodation even if we enter French Guyana (and my telephone also doesn´ t work over there)
And next • Three years of HIFI post-operations, led by SRON