DRAFT Minutes of the
GLAST International Finance Committee Meeting
SLAC
3 – 4 September 2007
The GLAST International Finance Committee met 3 to 4 September 2007 in Frascati at LNF and ASI.
In Attendance:
Members:
France – CEA: Pierre-Olivier Lagage
Italy – ASI: Elisabetta Cavazutti
Italy – INFN: Benedetto D’ettorre
Japan – Hiroshima: Takashi Ohsugi
Sweden – KTH: Per Carlson
USA – DOE: Kathy Turner
USA – SLAC: Steve Kahn
USA – Stanford: Peter Michelson
Staff:
NASA: Julie McEnery, Steve Ritz
INFN: Luca Latronico
SLAC: Rob Cameron, Richard Dubois, Seth Digel, Charlotte Chang, Harvey Lynch
Guests:
LNF: Mario Calvetti
ASDC: Paolo Giommi
ASI: Fabio Bracciaferri
INFN: Ronaldo Bellazzini
INAF: Patrizia Caraveo
KIPAC: Roger Blandford
SLAC: Persis Drell, David MacFarlane
Minutes 3 September 2007
Welcome and Goals – Steve Kahn
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/Kahn_GLASTIFC_080307.pdf
SLAC is undergoing some re-organization. Persis Drell has stepped down as the Director of the Particle Physics and Astrophysics Directorate (PPA) and Steve Kahn has taken over. His deputy is David MacFarlane. Persis retains her position as the Laboratory’s Deputy Director. Jonathan Dorfan will step down as Laboratory Director in early 2008.
Another transition is that as the result of budget adjustments, PEP-II and BaBar will be shut down on 30 September 2008. This is part of Basic Energy Sciences of DOE taking over stewardship of the Lab.
The contract for the management of SLAC will be opened for competition.
GLAST remains a very high priority for SLAC.
This is an exciting time for GLAST: The integration is complete, and we await launch, presently projected for February 2008. The ISOC is fully staffed. Science analysis is under way, including multi-wavelength work.
We propose that the next IFC meeting be held at Cape Canaveral at about the time of launch.
Welcome from Local Hosts
Giovanni Bignami ASI: You can count on ASI for strong and steadfast support for GLAST. in the next three-year plan.
Benedetto D’ettorre INFN: We express our thanks to Mario Calvetti and the LNF for hosting this meeting at the Laboratory. The INFN strongly supports GLAST and will continue to do so even in the face of overall budget reductions.
Mario Calvetti LNF: We are pleased that you have come to LNF for this meeting, and we welcome you. We have a long history of international collaboration. LNF is also changing. We are considering a new generation of DAFNE, we are pursuing the possibilities of SuperB, and physics in space.
Collaboration Status and Overview – Peter Michelson
The LAT has been integrated with the spacecraft!
There is much excitement in the collaboration. The analysis and science groups are very active. They meet frequently using the net. The frequency of collaboration meetings is increasing.
The membership policy has been modified, and new categories of affiliated postdocs and graduate students now exist. The LAT Collaboration Publication Policy requires that all LAT Collaboration publications (Category I and II) have a standard acknowledgement.
A table summarizing the demographics of the collaboration was presented. There are 94 full members, 90 affiliated scientists, and 38 postdocs. These numbers are broken down by funding agency.
We have 9 science working groups. On average, each collaboration member participates in 2 or 3 groups. Coordinators for the groups have a 1-year term, and rotations are staggered.
Page 20 of the presentation summarizes the multi-wavelength needs in terms of the science objective, what GLAST provided, and the specific multi-wavelength requirement.
Overviews from Italy
Paolo Giommi ASDC: INTEGRAL is operating and producing exciting results, witness the soft gamma-ray source catalogue. Its mission has been extended to 2010. AGILE is operating, and ASI has asked for guest observer proposals. We strongly support GLAST, and there will be a joint AGILE – GLAST workshop. http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/ASI_IFC_GLAST.pdf
Patrizia Caraveo INAF: We have a 2-year INAF – ASI contract for space exploration. There are nine work packages in the agreement for GLAST work: Coordination; Scientific Software; Galactic science; Extragalactic science; Search for counterparts; Robotic telescopes; GRBs; Dark matter; and AGILE-GLAST synergy. http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/GLAST-IFC.pdf
Ronaldo Bellazzini INFN: INFN has key responsibilities in GLAST data analysis from the Instrument Characterization to the High Level Science Analysis. This is demonstrated by Test Beam, Data Challenges, Service Challenge, I&T data analysis, coordination of many SWG. We are heavily contributing to ISOC in operations planning and development of tools. We support GLAST science through SC simulation and key core developments. http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/Bellazzini_INFN_report.pdf
Mission Status and Schedule – Steve Ritz
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/Ritz-Mission-IFC2007Sept-v3.pdf
There has been much progress. Electromagnetic Interference/Compatibility testing is complete. GBM - GPS compatibility issues are resolved. End-to-end timing tests with muons have been repeated. The Observatory is complete (including solar arrays) and getting ready for dynamics testing. End-to-end and Ground readiness testing is under way. The launch date stands at 5 February 2008, but will be updated shortly.
There is a schedule issue that has arisen because of a higher priority mission at General Dynamics is occupying the thermal-vac. test chamber. This may affect our launch date. We are considering using NRL.
A problem with the reaction wheels has arisen in an existing, on-orbit vehicle, and this has raised a concern. We think we understand the problem with the bearings, and we don’t believe that GLAST will be subject to this problem.
A press conference on “first light” is being planned 60 to 90 days after launch.
LAT Status – P. Michelson
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/LAT%20Status%20070820.pdf
The flight software is complete and “ready to fly.” The LAT performance remains within design without significant anomalies.
Page 7 shows a timeline for events from Pre Ship Review in September 2006 to transport of the LAT to the launch site.
LAT Beam Test Status – L. Latronico
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/Latronico_BT.pdf
The test beam effort has been quite successful. See page 19 of the presentation for a table of the 12 topics and their delivery.
The fundamental detector performance validated in terms of the angular and energy resolution, backsplash probability and angular resolution.
The Beam Test successes included a complete material audit, improved TKR and ACD signal simulation, CAL calibration extensively reviewed and corrected for non-linearities and cross-talk, improved hadronic physics list for background rejection, and the Geant4 package and LAT simulation in good shape.
Analysis Coordinator’s Report – Julie McEnery
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/sci_analysis_IFC.ppt
Intense work has been done to prepare for extracting science from the data. There are 9 science groups that have kept abreast of developments in the field, developed algorithms for information extraction, and made astrophysics simulations.
The LAT will send about 400 events/s to the ground, but only about 5 events/s are celestial gamma ray events. Event selection is crucial, and methods are being refined.
The high energy gamma-ray sky is dominated by diffuse emission from our Galaxy in the form of diffuse emission, and in the Galaxy, less than 10% are from known point sources. In order to study Galactic gamma-ray sources and isotropic emission, this diffuse component must first be understood.
We have mapped out the kinds of papers that we expect to be able to publish within the first year of operation.
A successor to the Data Challenge 2 (DC2) is being prepared.
ISOC Report – Rob Cameron
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/Cameron-ISOC-IFC3sep2007-v6.pdf
The GLAST operations testing program is well underway. The ambitious operations test schedule is integrated with remaining Observatory environmental and functional tests.
Major elements of ISOC function are in place, and all ISOC elements are hard at work preparing for launch, on-orbit commissioning and the science mission.
The LAT Collaboration is key to the success of the ISOC (and vice versa!) This is well demonstrated in the following Science Operations and SAS presentations.
Science Operations – Seth Digel
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/ScienceOps_IFC_Sep07_v6.pdf
The advances since March have been marked, and concepts have rapidly become working prototypes. Vital contributions are coming from across the collaboration.
Operations Simulation 1 (Oct. 8-12) will be a close to real-life test of SO functions.
With the infrastructure/processing/monitoring tasks coming into place, the focus will shift to planning, and testing, analyses and operations. Continued support for Science Operations activities is important.
Science Analysis Systems – Richard Dubois
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/IFC200709-SAS-v00.pdf
Page 11 of the presentation shows a graph of the projected computation needs as a function of time for disk space, number of processing cores, and tape storage. Some of these resources are already available both at SLAC as well as other collaborating institutions. Storage is expected to be the biggest challenge.
There is a shortage of manpower in some areas.
OCF Finances – Peter Michelson
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/9_07/Finances%20and%20Action%20Items.pdf
Tables of the OCF status and invoicing for CY 2007 were presented. There was an under-run of about $114 k, because one person left early.
A proposed OCF budget for CY 2008 was presented. It is proposed that the $114 k carry-over from CY 2007 be a contingency resource for CY 2008, because there may be surprises, such as computing needs or core engineering support after launch + 60 days.
A table of the collaboration head count as of September 2007 was presented.
In the February 2007 IFC meeting the committee asked what the plan will be for announcing early results and ensuring that proper acknowledgement will be made to all of the international partners consistent with what is specified in the agency and institutional MOA’s. The response is on page 8 of the presentation.
Round Table – All
Steve K.: We will begin FY 2008 without a budget, but it is expected that the budget is going to be tight. No large impact on GLAST is expected. It is likely that there will be a “continuing resolution” that lasts well into FY 2008. A major uncertainty relates to joint dark energy.
Pierre: The service challenge was very useful. The CEA budget for 2008 will not be good, but GLAST will be ok.
Steve R.: Cannot say much for NASA yet about CY 2008. There is a new administrator for science. People seem to be interested in doing more with less money. There is extremely strong support for GLAST. The concern is what happens if the launch date slips.
Elisabetta: ASI is in good shape!
Fabio: Elisabetta’s picture is accurate. ASI considers GLAST as a very high priority.
Benedetto: Same situation for INFN as reported at the March 2007 meeting. The budget increase for February is not large, but will be discussed at the end of September with the committee.
Kathy T.: DOE must deal with the uncertainties of a continuing resolution. The House and Senate language on JDEM is uncertain. There is strong support for GLAST.
Per: The year 2008 looks good. We are trying to increase our engagement with GLAST.
Takashi: Money that would have come from the US-Japan fund is still uncertain. We may be able to get other support. There are uncertainties with the new government.
Minutes of Previous Meeting – All
The minutes of the March 2007 meeting were approved with one change by Pierre and a few by Peter.
Next Meeting
It was tentatively agreed that the next IFC meeting would take place at Cape Canaveral, coincident with the GLAST launch. This is expected to occur in the February/March 2008 time frame.