1. Orbit Packing Changes for Cycle 12
Tom Donaldson

2. Overview Orbit Packing Today Orbit Packing in APT
Orbit Packing in Cycle 12 Ops
Retransing Cycle 12 Proposals
Retransing Earlier Proposals
Summary (call for feedback)

3. Orbit Packing Today
Exposure specifications are defined in “.prop” files using PED or text editor.
Trans expands the exposure specifications into the actual exposures.
User has no control over individual expanded exposures.

4. Orbit Packing Today (cont’d)
Trans assigns expanded exposures to orbits, adjusting their durations to “optimize” the orbit packing.
The DG displays orbit packing results.
Viewing the effects of changes to a proposal requires rerunning the entire proposal through the Preprocessor and Trans.

5. Orbit Packing Today – PC’s and PI’s
PC Toolbox
Orbit Packing Actions
PLIB
User
S/W
RPS2
PED/emacs
Use “.prop” file.
Define exposure specifications. PP
Syntax check.
Trans
Expand exposure specs into actual exposures.
Compute default durations of expanded exposures.
Adjust expanded exposure durations for instrument constraints.
Adjust expanded exposure durations for orbit packing.
Assign expanded exposures to orbits. DG
View orbit packing.
Repeat process as needed.
PMDB

6. Orbit Packing in APT APT will replace RPS2 in cycle 12.
Exposure specifications will be defined in “.xml” files using APT, not text editor.
User will be able to specify duration and orbit for expanded exposures.
Trans will not adjust expanded exposure durations for orbit packing.
Orbit Planner will display orbit packing results.
Viewing the effects of changes to a proposal requires only a partial run through Trans.

7. Orbit Packing in APT APT Orbit Packing Actions User S/W
Define exposure specifications.
APT Proposal Editor
Syntax check.
Use “.xml” file.
Expand exposure specs into actual exposures.
Compute default durations of expanded exposures.
Adjust expanded exposure durations for instrument constraints.
Trans
Orbit Planner
Adjust expanded exposure durations for orbit packing.
Assign expanded exposures to orbits.
View orbit packing.
Repeat process as needed.

8. Orbit Packing in Cycle 12 Ops
APT will not replace PC Toolbox in cycle 12.
“.xml” file will be primary proposal representation, but will be converted to “.prop” for use in Ops.
“.prop” files will contain duration and orbit number for expanded exposures.
Changes to proposal need to be made in APT, not PED or text editor.

9. Orbit Packing in Cycle 12 Ops (cont’d)
Trans will adjust expanded exposure durations up to 20% to optimize orbit packing (available mid cycle 12).

10. Orbit Packing in Cycle 12 Ops
PC Toolbox
Orbit Packing Actions
User
S/W
APT
Use “.xml” file.
Define exposure specifications.
PLIB and PP
Syntax check.
Trans
Expand exposure specs into actual exposures.
Compute default durations of expanded exposures. (As specified in APT)
Adjust expanded exposure durations for instrument constraints.
Adjust expanded exposure durations for orbit packing. (Optional)
Assign expanded exposures to orbits. (As specified in APT) DG
View orbit packing.
Repeat process as needed.
PMDB

11. Retransing Cycle 12 Proposals
To minimize manual effort needed to retrans proposals, Operational Trans will adjust expanded exposure durations up to 20% to optimize orbit packing.

12. Retransing Earlier Proposals
Proposal created prior to cycle 12 will not have orbit assignments for expanded exposures.
Without those orbit specifications, Trans cannot be guaranteed to recreate the same orbit structure it had when the last time it was processed.
We have two options…

13. Retransing Earlier Proposals – Option 1
Allow Trans to recompute the orbit packing.
If we don’t like the orbit packing it created, we could:
Live with using APT to edit the proposal to create a better packing.
When the packing is acceptable except for exceeding the orbit allocation, allow the extra orbit(s).

14. Retransing Earlier Proposals – Option 2
Trans could be configured to write a report detailing the orbit packing.
All outstanding proposals could be run through that version of Trans to create a record of the “correct” orbit packing.
That record could then be fed to Trans whenever one of those proposals was retransed.

15. Summary
The transition to APT will cause significant changes to the operational work flow.
Think about the changes, and contact me with:
Questions
Criticism
Ideas on how to smooth the transition
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