1. Double Star
Progress Meeting #3
Beijing
2 July, 2002

2. Status in Europe
The RFQ to Astrium was issued on March 21st, after receiving signed statements of responsibility from all European PIs
A proposal was delivered by Astrium on April 22nd
The content of the proposal was not considered satisfactory and a meeting was held with Astrium to discuss the issue
Full agreement was reached with Astrium and the final negotiation of the contract will take place on July 15-16
Contacts with Experimenters on the critical path and for pre-integration activities are expected to commence prior to the summer break.

3. Pre-integr. schedule
Assuming a successful negotiation on July 15 and an immediate start of activity prior to the summer holiday period, the pre-integration activity could take place in the September-October timeframe at Imperial College
Detailed information on the PDMS validation and design documentation is required in advance of the test
Logistic arrangements have to be completed between CSSAR and IC

4. Exp. delivery schedule
One of the Astrium tasks will be to establish a schedule for the delivery of all European experiments, based on dates to be negotiated with the PIs
This schedule will be available towards the end of October
FGM and ASPOC have indicated a delivery time of up to one year for their flight units, from the availability of funds.
Advanced long-lead parts procurement is being investigated by FGM as a means to advance the delivery date

5. Chinese schedule
The latest DSP CAST FM schedule delivered on 12 June 02 is as follows:

6. Outstanding activities
The following activities, which are common practice in any ESA project, do not appear or show a duration which could be inadequate:
S/S & P/L incoming inspection
Physical properties verification (mass, COG, measures ...)
Magnetic measurement (if applicable)
Mechanical verification (flatness of walls, footprint, mounting holes, grounding stud ....)
Mechanical installation on S/C
Power i/f verification (before powering the unit on)
Electrical interfaces verification (pin function verification of each connector - an automatic tool was used on Cluster)

7. Outstanding activities
Stand-alone unit functional verification (as far as possible, using break-out box)
Harness connection
Functional verification with the other subsystem units
System Functional Tests
System Validation Tests
EMC tests on FMs
Comms lines procurement, setup and validation
Radio Frequency Compatibility Test

8. Risk vs. Schedule
The lack of visibility in the tasks indicated earlier could be originated by the Chinese approach to the project management, which may be different from ESA’s
Nevertheless, the absence of some of the activities listed could increase the risk to the mission to a dangerous level
The aggregated time necessary for all the tasks listed above could have a major impact on the schedule
Clarification is urgently required in order to armonize the ESA and Chinese DSP schedules

9. Status – China
Discussion with the Chinese team is ongoing for programmatic and technical clarifications
Some of the questions are long outstanding
A detailed document (top-ten) has been issued by ESA addressing the most critical open issues
Documents have recently been received in response to the “top-ten”
Several areas are still not properly addressed and need to be clarified during the meeting

10. Programmatics open points
Management Organization Diagram
Work Breakdown structure
S/C MAIT schedule at subsystem level for all project components
S/C Test plan per model
TM/TC Database
Data flow to/from Europe
Frequency control plan
RFCT

11. Technical open points
Spacecraft architecture
Thermal issues (overall concept, stability)
Grounding plan
Harness routing
Data I/F format
Data distribution

12. Management @ ESA Currently the role of PM is covered by A. Gianolio
Support engineers from D-TOS can be allocated to the project upon need
Dr. Nord’s contract covers support to ESA and the PIs for:
The definition of the experiments’ interfaces with both DSP spacecraft.
Follow-up activities towards the experimenters to ensure that the delivered experiments are technically compatible with the approved interface specifications.
Support to pre-integration activities of the European experiments, performed in Europe under the responsibility of a selected contractor and the integration activities of the European experiments on the DSP Spacecraft.

13. ESA
In addition and separately from Dr. Nord’s tasks, Astrium main responsibility will be:
Establishment of contracts with all PIs for the procurement of the European DSP experiments
Establishment of a contract with Imperial College for the execution of the pre-integration tests
Establishment and maintenance of a project schedule

14. Contact points
During the recent meeting between CNSA administrator Mr. Luan and ESA’s Director General, the issue of communication between ESA and the Chinese Institutes has been addressed
Whilst acknowledging the very good coordination job performed by Prof. Wu, a lack of communication with CAST and CALT, of equivalent level as the one between ESA and CSSAR, was identified.
The request was therefore made by the Director of Science, Prof. Southwood, to Mr. Luan for the appointment of interface persons to ESA at CAST and CALT
CNSA is kindly requested to report on the evolution