Session 4: The History of Chandra
- Weisskopf, Martin C. - On the Making of Chandra
- Burke, Robert - Historical Remembrances of the Chandra X-ray Observatory: How Partnerships Created Success
- Bautz, Mark - Reflections on the Development of the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer(ACIS)
[Astronaut Talk and Video]
[Chandra Mission Highlights from Northrup Grumman - Video]
On the Making of Chandra
Martin C. Weisskopf, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
The development of Chandra (nee the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility) was a long process taking two decades or more depending on the definition of the beginning. We shall review this development from the Project Scientist's perspective highlighting several important milestones in this truly Great Observatory's history.
[PDF of this talk] [Video of this talk]
Historical Remembrances of the Chandra X-ray Observatory: How Partnerships Created Success
Robert Burke, Northrop Grumman
As the astronomy community plans for new ventures in space, we're forced to find creative solutions to operate within the ever increasing fiscal constraints of the current economic environment. The Chandra X-ray Observatory program offers an example of how missions can be successfully developed within manageable budget constraints. The ten year anniversary offers us the chance to look back at the Chandra team's special partnership between scientists, managers, and industry that led to our success.Chandra experienced many of the challenges common to major observatories: state-of-the-art technical requirements, budget-induced slips, and restructurings. Yet the Chandra team achieved excellent performance for dramatically lower cost. In fact, Chandra completed its prime mission for billions of dollars less than originally planned. In 1992, NASA MSFC and Northrop Grumman (then TRW) together led a major restructure that saved approximately $3.4B in program cost, while we improved the imaging capability and observing efficiency of Chandra. This was accomplished by a combination of team-work, systems engineering, advanced technology insertion, and effective approaches for program implementation, combined with a high performance culture that aligned goals and focused on mission success. Northrop Grumman is proud of our role in supporting the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and our academic partners in advancing the frontiers of x-ray astronomy and scientific discovery with Chandra. As Chandra continues its extended mission, the observatory continues to provide superb scientific performance.
[PDF of this talk] [Video of this talk]
Reflections on the Development of the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer(ACIS)
Mark Bautz, MIT
The ACIS began as a collaboration between JPL, MIT and Penn State University in the early 1980's, with JPL taking a lead role in the development of the CCDs through industrial contractors, principally Texas Instruments. As the program developed, JPL's interested in High Energy began to be secondary to their planetary missions and the primary responsibility for developing the CCDs and the instrument design shifted to Penn State, MIT Center for Space Research and MITs Lincoln Laboratory. I will show how the design of the instrument evolved from the original proposal with 24 CCDs plus an optional set of six CCDs for grating spectroscopy to its current design of two arrays, one optimized for imaging and one optimized for grating spectroscopy.
[PDF of this talk] [Video of this talk]
The Three Decades of the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating (HETG)
Claude Canizares, MIT
[PDF of this talk] [Video of this talk]
HRI to HRC
Stephen Murray, SAO