Same symptom. Different cause.
Science is late or at risk
The Ground GapCinder
Recorder Tide
Science is still flowing. The recorder will not hold the plan.
The recorder fills, or science is lost, if nothing is thinned or dumped before the limit.
DEMONSTRATION CONCEPT
This is a demonstration concept. It is not a live demonstration and does not report an executed result.
The situation
Science is still being recorded. Recorder occupancy, data volume, and upcoming contacts are all visible. Nothing has failed yet.
Science still flows. Recorder occupancy is climbing toward its declared limit.
Why this is hard
A recorder can be inside its limit now and still be on a path to overwrite science. A contact that already failed, or a ground path that already dropped the data, is a different problem.
Waiting for overflow, or repairing a ground path that has not failed, should not count. Overflow itself is not success.
What the operator can see
- NowScience still flowing
- TrendOccupancy rising
- AheadDeclared limit
What V8Y must determine
V8Y must determine whether recorder occupancy will cross the declared limit if nothing changes, as against a contact that already failed or a ground path that already dropped the data, and act before that crossing.
What may happen next
The recorder reaches full, or science is lost, inside the horizon if no action is taken.
What counts as recovery
Not recovery
Success is not cleanup after the recorder is full.
Recovery
Success is that recorder occupancy stays below the declared limit through the horizon, with no overflow.
Observed results
No executed results are published for this thread.
What this evaluation would test
- The same headroom question as The Quiet Capacity Crisis.
- Science is still inside requirements.
- An overwrite deadline, not an outage already in progress.
- A demonstration concept. The limit and lead time are synthetic and not yet set.
These are the conditions the evaluation would test. They are not reported results.
Operational basis
View operational basis and sources
Documented spacecraft practice treats recorder occupancy, volume, and contacts as one limit. Forecasting a crossing before anything fails is synthetic. The numeric limit is not yet set.
STScI. JWST solid-state recorder documentation.
Related threads
The Quiet Capacity Crisis asks this headroom question for a shared facility pool. The Ground Gap is a different science-arrival problem.
Discuss this evaluation concept
Does your environment face a similar problem?
The request keeps this mission and thread. It is not a claim that the demonstration has been validated in your environment.
The printable flyer is being revised and is not available for download.