4.1.7 Success Criteria
Prior to a flight, programmatic, scientific, technological and operational success
criteria are established. Often the flights carry other experiments of opportunity,
and they have their own criteria. For the payload engineer success may mean the
instrument worked as designed. For the scientist success may mean it observed a
gamma-ray burst or received the neutrinos as intended.
Sometimes a science team can determine fairly early whether their payload and
instruments were successful. If there is telemetry then they begin their analysis
immediately, although they might not have sufficient data to provide a complete
assessment. In addition to monitoring the health of the instrument, scientists can
see if they are getting the data they expected and hoped for.
The following is a more specific example of how the SuperTIGER Principal
Investigator, Dr. Brian Rauch, described the process (edited and summarized):
We sign off on official pre-flight minimum success criteria that are based on
what can be achieved based upon CSBF flight expectations. I agreed to 8 days
or one rotation around the continent, whichever came first, but I wanted to fly
as long as possible (we got 32 days). I wanted to fly as high as possible, but
ended up signing off on a minimum of 110,000 ft. I provided a science data
requirement of (~0.4 million iron events and equivalent numbers of cosmic
ray nuclei 10 <= Z <= 56) based on what we would expect in the minimum
flight duration on reasonable instrument performance which was SuperTIGER
at 90% functional for 80% of the time. It turned out that we lost 50% of our
detector after 3 days, but the longer flight allowed us to exceed our minimum
scientific success requirements by a comfortable margin.
4.2 MISSION OPERATIONS
4.2.1 Real-Time Planning and Coordination
A balloon in free flight may encounter significant operational restrictions across a
range of projected mission types, including:
• A need to avoid high population centers for safety reasons during a long
duration mission.
• A need to avoid regions restricted for geopolitical reasons.
• A need to overfly a specific region.
• A need to recover a payload in acceptable areas.
• A desire to achieve the intended scientific objectives.
Once the science and launch teams arrive on site, they begin implementing their
plans, typically involving more evaluation of the current and planned weather in
the launch time-frame and the impact on launch and recovery operations.
70 Mission Drivers and Operations
Prior to a flight, programmatic, scientific, technological and operational success
criteria are established. Often the flights carry other experiments of opportunity,
and they have their own criteria. For the payload engineer success may mean the
instrument worked as designed. For the scientist success may mean it observed a
gamma-ray burst or received the neutrinos as intended.
Sometimes a science team can determine fairly early whether their payload and
instruments were successful. If there is telemetry then they begin their analysis
immediately, although they might not have sufficient data to provide a complete
assessment. In addition to monitoring the health of the instrument, scientists can
see if they are getting the data they expected and hoped for.
The following is a more specific example of how the SuperTIGER Principal
Investigator, Dr. Brian Rauch, described the process (edited and summarized):
We sign off on official pre-flight minimum success criteria that are based on
what can be achieved based upon CSBF flight expectations. I agreed to 8 days
or one rotation around the continent, whichever came first, but I wanted to fly
as long as possible (we got 32 days). I wanted to fly as high as possible, but
ended up signing off on a minimum of 110,000 ft. I provided a science data
requirement of (~0.4 million iron events and equivalent numbers of cosmic
ray nuclei 10 <= Z <= 56) based on what we would expect in the minimum
flight duration on reasonable instrument performance which was SuperTIGER
at 90% functional for 80% of the time. It turned out that we lost 50% of our
detector after 3 days, but the longer flight allowed us to exceed our minimum
scientific success requirements by a comfortable margin.
4.2 MISSION OPERATIONS
4.2.1 Real-Time Planning and Coordination
A balloon in free flight may encounter significant operational restrictions across a
range of projected mission types, including:
• A need to avoid high population centers for safety reasons during a long
duration mission.
• A need to avoid regions restricted for geopolitical reasons.
• A need to overfly a specific region.
• A need to recover a payload in acceptable areas.
• A desire to achieve the intended scientific objectives.
Once the science and launch teams arrive on site, they begin implementing their
plans, typically involving more evaluation of the current and planned weather in
the launch time-frame and the impact on launch and recovery operations.
70 Mission Drivers and Operations