Minutes of the
GLAST International Finance Committee Meeting
SLAC
3 February 2007
The GLAST International Finance Committee met 3 February 2007 at SLAC
In Attendance:
Members:
France – CEA: Pierre-Olivier Lagage
France – IN2P3: Benoit Lott, representing Stavros Katsanevas
Italy – ASI: Elisabetta Cavazutti
Italy – INFN: Guido Barbiellini representing Benedetto D’ettorre
Japan – Hiroshima: Takashi Ohsugi
Sweden – KTH: Per Carlson
USA – DOE: Kathy Turner
USA – NASA: Rick Harnden
USA – SLAC: Persis Drell
USA – Stanford: Peter Michelson
Staff:
NASA: Julie McEnery, Steve Ritz
NRL Neil Johnson
Stanford University: Nancy Christiansen
SLAC: Rob Cameron, Richard Dubois, Seth Digel, Charlotte Chang, Harvey Lynch
Guests:
KIPAC: Roger Blandford, Steve Kahn
Minutes 3 February 2007
Welcome - Persis Drell
Persis welcomed the members of the IFC, and Guido Barbiellini representing Benedetto D’ettorre and Benoit Lott representing Stavros Katsanevas.
Collaboration Status and Overview – Peter Michelson
The LAT has been integrated with the space craft at General Dynamics (Spectrum Astro). Observatory-level environmental testing is planned for March. The LAT collaboration is fully engaged in preparations for science analysis and science operations.
Page 7 of the presentation has a breakdown of the membership by country and category. Nine science working groups (SWGs) have been set up, and they are functioning. Pages 10 and 11 outline the multi-wavelength needs.
Mission Status and Schedule – Steve Ritz
The LAT has been integrated onto the Observatory and is fully functional. Observatory integration is almost complete.
The Delta II trans-sonic issue has been resolved, and the scheduled launch date is 15 November 2007. NASA asks for names of people not on the collaboration list who should be invited to the launch.
A GLAST Users Committee web site http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/resources/guc/ has been set up.
LAT Status – Neil Johnson
The mechanical integration went very well and was completed on 8 December 2006. Functional testing of LAT via the Observatory command and telemetry systems was completed 13 January 2007. We are working through the validation of requirements. The LAT meets or exceeds all of its requirements related to instrument performance and science objectives.
There is a problem with infrequent, unexpected reboots of LAT SIU and EPU computers; it is being worked on. Flight software was not complete when the instrument was turned over to NASA. This work requires considerable resources.
Page 7 has a set of milestones for work.
Analysis Coordinator’s Report – Julie McEnery
There are nine science working groups (SWGs), and most people are members of more than one group. These groups are making preparations for obtaining scientific results from the LAT, and they provide a forum for people to work together. These groups are working well, and there is broad participation. The activity of these groups is expected to increase in the coming months.
· More people actively participating (transitioning from instrument commissioning / beam test)
· Multi-wavelength planning and proposal writing needs to kick into high gear -- the next few months are important!
· Many groups compiled a list of papers that could be written pre-launch, there is ~1 year left to get these done.
· Lots of detailed source simulations and analysis
There will be a “Service Challenge” analogous to the previous Data Challenges. This is to exercise the ability to extract physics results from the data.
A question was raised on planning for the initial announcement of results. In particular, how will the international structure of the collaboration be presented?
Test Beam Report – Philippe Bruel
Results were reported from tests made at the CERN PS and SPS on the Tracker, Calorimeter, ACD, and background studies using photons, electrons, positrons, muons, pions, and protons. Other tests for the Tracker and Calorimeter were made at GSI. The results are quite satisfactory, although some disagreements with simulations were observed. The discrepancies are being investigation for feedback into the simulations.
ISOC Report – Rob Cameron
The ISOC supports LAT and GLAST I&T efforts while preparing for on-orbit flight operations, science operations, and science analysis systems. A table (p. 7) shows the status and planning to meet the 277 requirements by release number and date.
Construction of the operations facility is complete. Computers are being installed along with related infrastructure.
Readiness for the End-to-End Test 1, Ground Readiness Tests, and Mission Simulations were described.
Science Operations – Seth Digel
Science operations includes data processing, data monitoring, calibration and configuration, other analysis functions, and operations. An operations web page https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/display/ISOC/Operations has been set up for communications. A set of milestones is given on p. 17 of the presentation.
A question was asked about planning for setting up shift assignment to assure coverage and an equitable sharing of that load. This has not yet been done.
Science Analysis Systems – Richard Dubois
We had a “Service Challenge” in September. It is analogous to the “Data Challenge” for service functions. As a result, some strategy is being re-thought. Timelines for other simulation tests are given on p. 6.
Computing resources and needs have been reviewed. Much of the present disk space has been “spoken for”; remaining space is being carefully monitored. Much use of the BaBar batch farm has been made, with much success. Plans for future acquisitions are summarized on p. 10 of the presentation.
Manpower needs were summarized. There is a shortfall of about FTEs for infrastructure-type tasks were identified.
OCF Finances – Peter Michelson
Calendar year 2006 closed with $58 k left over, compared to the budget. The proposed CY 2007 budget was presented, and it was proposed that the $58 k be made available in 2007 for computing needs, in addition to the presented 2007 budget. The CY 2007 budget and the proposal for carry-over were discussed and agreed-to. It is expected that the normal case would be to apply an carry-over to the next year to reduce the expenditure. The projected CY 2008 budget was also shown. The collaboration count for 2007 was ratified.
A table of the contributions of the partners to the LAT project was presented (p. 6) and ratified. We shall not discuss this table again.
Round Table – All
Persis The US federal budget situation is especially complicated this year, due to what Congress did and did not do before the elections, and the effect of change of control of both houses of Congress as a result of the elections last November. We do not yet have a budget for FY 2007 (starting October 2006). Initial indications were that 2007 would be the same as for 2006 (a “Continuing Resolution”), and that causes problems. Projections last year for 2007 were very favorable, with projected growth for the Office of Science. Planning was done in this context, and a strict application of a continuing resolution would cause substantial problems. There are indications that the final 2007 budget may not be this bad, but at this time we do not know.
Per There are good news in Sweden. They have recruited a new senior person and a postdoc. Another good person has been given tenure.
Pierre CEA funding is constant, but salaries are increasing, but GLAST funding are secure. They have support for CNES, and they hope for 2 more postdocs.
Benoit The picture for IN2P3 is similar to that for CEA. They have applied for 3 more postdocs.
Takashi Things are going well, except for funding! They have one more person. The US/Japan agreement expired in September 2005, and as a result funding has been seriously cut. Signing a new US/Japan treaty is very important for financial support.
Kathy Persis gave a good summary of the situation regarding DOE funding. The President’s budget for FY 2008 will be presented on 5 February 2007. DOE strongly supports GLAST.
Guido Italy has a new government, and this has caused financial complications. A big increase in funding was promised, but it has not been “delivered.” INFN expects to continue its support of GLAST, even in difficult times.
Rick The NASA FY 2007 budget was not expected to be larger than for 2006. There are management changes within NASA in progress. NASA completely supports GLAST.
Elisabetta The budget situation should be ok for 2007. ASI is sending an in-kind contribution person. There is hope for more people from ASI.
All The minutes of the September 2006 meeting were accepted, with a few changes.
Next Meeting – All
Guido and Elisabetta said that the INFN and ASI would like to invite the IFC to Rome for the next IFC meeting, and the IFC welcomed the invitation. After some discussion, it was agreed that the next meeting would be 1 1/2 days in Rome.
· 3 – 4 September (primary candidate)
· 5 – 6 September (back up date)
After the meeting the date 3 – 4 September 2007 was chosen.