The GCN/TAN (BACODINE) People


The following people built and ran the original BACODINE system, and now continue to build/expnd and run the GCN/TAN systems:

LHEA LEGR Group Code 661 personnel:

Scott Barthelmy:    
scott@lheamail.gsfc.nasa.gov, (301)-286-3106 (office)
3013463733@cingularme.com (pager by email, 240 characters max per message)
Principle Investigator for the GCN/TAN project (& the original BACODINE project). Wrote all of the "science/analysis" code, the filtering & distribution code, the e-mail & pager code, and a some of the socket code. Wrote all of the GCN web pages. (1992-present)

Teresa Sheets:
Does the programming for the new features and aspects of the system (2000-present).

Craig Markwardt:
Got Teresa started in the MIME-capable Circulars processing (2008).

Tom McGlynn:
Wrote the interface programs to the SIMBAD and NED search services (2006).

LHEA Computer SysAdmin People:
Help to maintain the computer system and networks within LHEA (2002-present).

Thomas L. Cline:    
Long-time GRB researcher, IPN guru, and much respected & appreciated advisor to the project. (1992-2005)

Neil Gehrels:    
Branch head for Code 661 and CGRO Project scientist. Greatly facilitated the introductions between myself and the GRO project people and the SDPF people. (1992)

Paul Butterworth:
Provided daily restarts to the program. Managed most of the day-to-day operations of the system (1994-2000).

Kim Pollock:
Improved and translated the figures for this webpage and provided some much needed help on how to speak HTML (mid 1990's).

Mission Operations and Data Systems Directorate (MO&DSD) Code 500 personnel:
Contains the Mission Operations and Systems Development Division (MO&SDD) which has the Sensor Data Processing Facility (SDPF) Code 514 personnel:

Tom Bialas:
Provided and set up the special-purpose telemetry-capture front-end computers, and provided answers to the zillion questions I had about capturing, extracting, and unpacking telemetry data from the CGRO spacecraft. He was the primary interface to MO&DSD/SDPF operation and put out many brush fires. (1992-1994)

Michael Wilson:
Wrote most of the socket connection code (both the sockets between the three computers in the original BACODINE system and the Internet sockets to the various sites). (1992-1993)

Cindy Lenart & Kevin McGee:
Wrote the dedicated and dialed phone/modem connection code. (1992)

The "bubble" people:
These people manned the GRO PACOR "bubble" MOC 24 hours a day 365 days a year, which handled all the telemetry data processing for GRO, Hubble, etc. The Bubble people also monitored a computer terminal connected to the GCN system. If they saw a problem, they automatically restarted the GCN system. This 24-hour monitoring helped maintain GCN's high up-time efficiency. (1993-1996)

S.T. Fang & J. Chen:
In the BACODINE days, these two fixed the GRO "front-end" computer hardware failures, and they debugged and fixed the GSFC-local network and op-system software problems. (1993-1996)

MSFC BATSE Instrument team personnel (1992-2000):
The original BACODINE portion of GCN taps into the telemetry stream from the CGRO spacecraft and processes the BATSE data. The following people are the primary people involved in the interaction of BACODINE and BATSE.

Gerald J. Fishman:
Principle Investigator for the CGRO-BATSE instrument.

Chryssa Kouveliotou:
Primary BATSE team member.

Charles A. Meegan:
Primary BATSE team member.

Marc Kipen, Valerie Connaughton, and Geoff Pendleton:
Principle players in the LOCBURST capability.

Return to GCN/TAN homepage.
This file was last modified on 29-Aug-08.