ACS, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, suffered a power supply failure in January 2007, leaving two of its three cameras dark. Within two weeks, a project to repair ACS was organized, and in August 2007 NASA approved ACS-R for launch in August 2008 on the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4. The total time from concept to launch is about half the usual time for such a mission, so it is a challenging project. But the potential payoff is great: restoration of a workhorse camera on the HST for the remainder of its mission lifetime.

July 2008

Our team started off the month by successfully conducting a Pre-Environmental Review. This review certifies that the flight hardware works, and is built well enough to proceed to the environmental testing stage (sometimes referred to as "shake and bake"). The ACS-R hardware then passed vibration testing, and the electromagnetic interference and compatibility tests. Next up: thermal-vacuum testing, which will run 24/7 for almost the entire month of August. Meanwhile, our flight software and operations teams are busy testing and tidying up the software and procedures that will be needed to run the new hardware after it is installed in HST.

June 2008

June was a challenging and exciting month. After assembling the CEB-R with all its mechanisms, we found an electrical short that required some adjustment of the mechanical design. The LVPS-R also had its share of excitement: While reviewing paperwork, diligent team members noticed that some non-flight power modules had been inadvertently installed and had to be replaced. By month's end we had worked through these challenges, and also made preparations for the ACS-R Pre-Environmental Review. We also completed several significant integrated hardware tests this month, confirming the system-level compatibility of the hardware. Final environmental testing (checking for electromagnetic interference, and thermal-vacuum testing) starts next month.

May 2008

The flight CEB-R completed testing this month with very good results. Some design modifications were implemented to improve noise performance. Software and operations testing is near completion and will culminate in a set of integrated tests in June that will exercise the entire ground and (simulated) flight segments with the Engineering Model ACS-R hardware. Optimizations for the Flight Assembly Code for the ASIC are being investigated to address some performance aspects. Intense preparations are underway for the flight hardware environmental testing that will begin in mid-June.

April 2008

April was another milestone month for the ACS-R team. The flight prime CEB-R has been assembled and delivered to the DCL for performance testing. System-level testing continues with the engineering model hardware, demonstrating that the ground and flight software are close to flight readiness. Another set of engineering hardware will be shipped imminently to TIS for final verification of the Flight Assembly Code for the ASIC. Plans for the on-orbit commissioning and optimization of the CEB-R during SMOV have been put into place and preparations are under way.

March 2008

This was a month of significant progress for the ACS-R team.  The noise performance on the CEB-R Engineering Model 2 was shown to meet expectation in the primary video processing mode (integrator).  The secondary mode (clamp and sample) operates close to specification, and additional testing is planned to better understand its performance.  This is the first time that the entire flight-like system has been demonstrated to have the expected performance.  The flight LVPS-R unit has been successfully completed at Ball and delivered to GSFC.  Fabrication of the CEB-R flight boards is continuing.  The "oscilloscope mode" diagnostic tool that was added to the CEB-R in February has been demonstrated to work very well at Teledyne.  This tool will allow for more accurate and rapid on-orbit optimization of the CEB-R.

February 2008

The Flight Model CEB-R mechanical hardware is completed and being tested. The flight CEB-R printed circuit boards have been committed to production. The second flight LVPS-R is being assembled. The second Engineering Model of the CEB-R is being tested. The first EM is being used with the ACS hardware simulators to develop and test the flight software. Detailed planning has begun for the Servicing Mission Orbital Verification (SMOV) activities that will be used on-orbit to check out and tune the ACS-R hardware.

January 2008

Extensive testing on the first Engineering Model of the CEB-R is under way. The first of two Flight Model LVPS-R's is being completed. System-level testing of the EM CEB-R, EM LVPS-R together with the ACS hardware simulators demonstrates that the ACS-R system is functioning as expected. These tests use flight-like commanding and software, and exercise all the flight command, data, and power interfaces. Flight software and operations preparations are continuing.