Overview of Instrument Post-integration Testing

A heavy schedule of spacecraft and instrument testing occurred during the 
final 8 months prior to the launch of the Contour spacecraft after 
the science instruments were integrated onto the spacecraft.  The other 
files in this directory list and describe the individual tests that were 
performed during this time period.  This file describes the nature of these
tests. 
  
There were three basic catagories of testing that involved the instruments
during this time period: 

1) Real-time STOL functional testing. These were procedures run by the 
instrument engineers on their instruments using a method of commanding
called real-time STOL. This is where command scripts are sent to the
spacecraft and the commands execute immediately upon receipt. They are
not executed via a stored command sequence.  

A large fraction of post-integration testing was accomplished via this 
means. The test lists provided in this directory give the names of these 
test, and some information about test execution times, and met ranges. 
But the actual command procedures are not documented in this archive. 


2) Spacecraft Performance Tests (SPT)
This was a series of tests that would run over a 6 day period, designed to 
stress the spacecraft and instruments, and demostrate that the components
and software would function as designed under various environmental 
conditions. The 6-day test was repeated a number of times while the spacecraft
was still located at APL, during thermal vacuum testing at Goddard, and at 
KSC (Kennedy Space Center). 

A great variety of tests were performed during this 6 day script. Instrument
involvement included the execution of various STOL functionals, as well as
several 'sequenced' tests including an SSR recording test, a C&DH stress 
test, and a 3.5 hour Encounter test which involved all of the instruments.
Only the command sequences for the STP Encounter Test is available in this 
archive under the harch/sequences/spt/ directory.

A rough schedule of dates of execution of the SPT Encounter test is given
here. Please refer to the test lists for more a more detailed description 
of the individual tests performed.

SPT Dry Run -(no CRISP) -  Dec 17, 2001
1st Baseline (no CRISP) - Jan 9, 2002
2nd Baseline  Mar 11, 2002
SPT Encounter Mar 21, 2002
SPT Encounter Mar 23, 2002
SPT Encounter Apr 17, 2002
SPT Encounter May 3, 2002


3) Mission Simulation Tests 
Mission Simulation tests were performed under the supervision of the Mission 
Operations Team. These ran on a 5-day template. Normally 2 or 3 of those days 
were dedicated to instrument operations that involved mainly sequenced 
tests. A primary objective of these tests was to run encounter and post
launch commissioning sequences to validate the end-to-end system 
of sequencing and commanding. Another primary objective was to make sure
that the instrument flight software and hardware were ready for encounter 
operations. The sequence files for these tests are available in this
archive in the harch/sequences/mission_sims directory.
 
As a part of the Mission Simulations, we also tested the STOL (real-time) 
post-launch checkout sequences. The STOL scripts created for these
are not available in this archive.
 
In addition to the normal Mission Sim testing, we also dedicated 3 days
to running off-nominal trajectory encounter simulations to test the CRISP 
Tracking software and hardware. These files are available in the 
harch/sequences/mission_sims/tracking_tests directory.

An overview of the dates of execution follow:

  MSIM 1  Dec 4-7, 2001  Reduced Encounter Sequence (CFI, NGIMS brassbrd)
  MSIM 2  Mar 13, 2002   Encounter Dry Run 
  MSIM 2  Apr 4-6, 2002  Encounter Tests and Tracking Tests
          May 8, 2002    Dry Run Revised Tracking TEsts
  MSIM 3  May 13, 2002   Coalignment Test
          May 16, 2002   Encounter Short Test
          May 17, 2002   Tracking Tests
          May 18, 2002   CRISP/CFI Power Up/Down Sequences
          May 21, 2002   Encounter Long Test