Spacecraft Talk Continued During JPL Wildfire Threat

Feature
September 09, 2009

Spacecraft Talk Continued During JPL Wildfire Threat

As the flames of the raging brush fire dubbed the Station Fire
threatened the northern edge of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
on Saturday, Aug. 29, the managers of NASA's Deep Space Network
prepared for the worst.

The Deep Space Operations Center at JPL is the nerve center for the
Deep Space Network, an international network of antennas that
send and receive information to interplanetary spacecraft. Staffed
24/7, 365 days a year, the JPL hub is constantly active connecting
three major antenna sites, numerous mission operation centers run
by NASA and an international group of space agencies, and more
than 30 spacecraft flying throughout our solar system.

"We were more like the nervous center that weekend than the
nerve center," said Wayne Sible of JPL, the network's deputy
program manager for Deep Space Network development, operations
and services.

The Deep Space Network operations managers knew that, fire or no
fire, time was critical for sending software programs to and
downloading diagnostic information from several spacecraft,
including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which had an
unexpected computer reboot the day the fire started on Aug. 26,
and the Dawn spacecraft, on its way to the asteroid belt.

The network's antennas that send and receive information to
spacecraft, located at Goldstone, in California's Mojave Desert; near
Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia, were never in danger.
But Sible and Jim Hodder, the network's operations manager, got
word on Friday, Aug. 28, that the Station fire, which started in the
San Gabriel Mountains above the Laboratory, was burning towards
JPL. Emergency managers and senior JPL administrators called for JPL
to be closed, except for essential personnel, on Friday evening.

A flurry of phone calls followed -- to the Deep Space Network team,
the mission operation centers and ITT Systems Division, the
contractor that provides the operators for the operations center at
JPL.

On a phone call with Hodder, the team decided to move network
operators to a facility in Monrovia, Calif., where other support work
is normally conducted for the Deep Space Network. The Monrovia
building – about 15 miles from JPL -- offered basic access to the
critical systems, though the operators would not be able to use
personalized computer scripts or notes that facilitate their work.

It seemed practical, since activating the emergency control center at
the Goldstone complex in California's Mojave Desert would be more
disruptive and require some suspension of communications while
they moved staff 150 miles to that location.

Two of the five Deep Space Network operators on weekend duty
were sent to Monrovia, but three volunteered to stay at the control
center at JPL, to ensure systems continued to operate normally, to
keep connections open with the flight projects, and to maintain the
flow of engineering and science data to flight projects and scientists
around the globe.

The three who stayed at JPL – along with about 40 other mission-
critical personnel at any given time – were told not to spend much
time outside. Hodder called frequently to check on the health of the
crew and to obtain status reports on the network.

On Saturday afternoon, Sible and Hodder were ready to pull out
those remaining three operators and put further communications
with the network on hold if the fire reached the Mesa, a flat helipad
and testing site at the northern edge of JPL.

That afternoon, the fire burned to within an eighth of a mile of the
northern border of the lab. Emergency managers told staff to be
ready to evacuate in 30 minutes.

Thankfully, with fire department handcrews cutting firebreaks,
helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping water and flame
retardant, and the wind shifting, the danger passed on Saturday
night. An unpleasant haze of smoke settled on the lab, but the air
had cleared enough for the network operators in Monrovia to
return to JPL Monday evening. The rest of JPL opened as usual on
Tuesday morning at 6 a.m.

In the end, the Deep Space Network was able to complete its 182
scheduled uploading and downloading sessions with spacecraft over
the weekend without interruption.

"It went very well," Sible said. "Nobody saw any hiccups
whatsoever."

More information on the Deep Space Network is online at
http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/ .

-end-

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