Lessons Learned from SOFIA

1. Lessons Learned from SOFIA Erick YoungSOFIA Science Center25 April 2012 Implementing Portals to the Universe

2. Basic Parameters • Mission Duration –Facility designed for 20 year operational lifetime • User Base – General astronomical community • Archive data volume – For first 100 hours of science operations • SI Data: 17 GB • Engineering: 900 GB • Instruments – 7 First Generation + Occasional New Opportunities • Wavelength Coverage -0.6 – 1500 mm ( 20 – 500 mm prime) • Program model – GO and Instrument PI • Proposals/cycle – 133 US and 39 German in Cycle 01 • Users/cycle - ~50 teams • Funding model – GO grants + Instrument Team Grants • Default Proprietary Period – 1 year Implementing Portals to the Universe

3. What’s being done well Implementing Portals to the Universe

4. Highlight 1 – Early Science • Successful completion of “Early Science” • Demonstration phase of PI and shared risk GO science with the FORCAST mid-IR Camera and GREAT Heterodyne spectrometer prior to completion of all the development work on the observatory • Essentially a dry run of Normal Operations • Early involvement of the Instrument Scientists was crucial to successfully executing the flight series • Pre-flight preparations in the lab • Procedure and observing-script development • Support of Guest Observers • Support of observations • Post-flight data support • Operations Staff willing to go the extra mile was a key success element • None of the early flights were trouble free and skilled Telescope Operators, Flight Planners, and Mission Directors were essential Implementing Portals to the Universe

5. Highlight 2 – Software Tools • Reuse or adaptation of existing tools for Two phase proposal process • Phase 1 uses adaptation of STSci-developed APT for proposal input • Phase 1 input does not require detailed observation planning, and allows the proposers and review panels to focus on scientific content. • Phase 2 uses SOFIA-specific adaptation of Spitzer-developed SPOT • The prime potential user base (Spitzer and Herschel observers) is already familiar with SPOT. • Use of AOTs limits phase space to manageable scope • Unique aspects of SOFIA required development of custom tools • Flight planning software that knows about airborne constraints needed to be developed Implementing Portals to the Universe

6. Highlights 3 – International Partnership • The international partnership between the US and Germany has helped the project maintain an even keel • Different fiscal and political calendars have helped to smooth out the inevitable programmatic fluctuations • Partners need to continually work to make to relationship effective • Frequent communications • Combined leadership in the Science Mission Operations • Deputy Science Center Director is German • Coordination of science opportunities and proposal calls • Currently separate TACs but close in time • Coordinated selection of observations • Combined scheduling queue for Guest Investigators Implementing Portals to the Universe

7. Challenges Implementing Portals to the Universe

8. Challenges 1 – Development vs. Observations • Balancing of facility development and science activities • Key resources are the operational team and the aircraft itself and the needs to support observations sometimes conflicts with the needs to • Combining engineering and science cultures requires effort • In NASA much of the development effort is process oriented while the observer’s goal is product. Implementing Portals to the Universe

9. Challenges 2 – Minimizing Operational Costs • Operational costs will always be a larger element of the SOFIA budget than for a typical space mission • For a space mission, the major hardware costs are finished at launch • Airplane maintenance, fuel, and crews will be continuing costs over which we have limited control • Key is maintaining scientific productivity • Efficient operations • Advanced instrumentation • Maintenance of the facility • Ensuring all the effort is productive effort Implementing Portals to the Universe

10. Challenges 3- Maintaining Staff • Maintaining the Science and Mission Operations Staff • Instrument scientists and operators will go on flights, operate instruments, and provide support for GO’s • Flight crew also includes Mission Directors, Telescope Operators, and Flight Planners • Science Center is also responsible for maintaining Facility Instruments • One key is maintaining a vigorous scientific environment • Emphasizing the value of research by the staff • Providing opportunities to do research • On the operational side, making sure the work environment is rewarding • Avoiding “burn out” Implementing Portals to the Universe

11. What are the constraints in current policies? Implementing Portals to the Universe

12. Policy Constraints • It is important to find the right balance between NASA software development standards and the ability to flexibly adapt to changing software needs. • Tailoring of Systems Engineering processes is important as we go from proposals to uplink to downlink to pipeline to archive • Annual budget process is nuts. Implementing Portals to the Universe