INCOSE Enchantment: Black Hole Cinema: Application of Systems Engineering Methods to Expand and Enhance an Earth-sized Telescope
Black Hole Cinema: Application of Systems Engineering Methods to Expand and Enhance an Earth-sized Telescope
Speaker: Garret Fitzpatrick & Ryan Chaves
Date: Wednesday, 09 October 2024
Time: 4:45 PM - 6:00 PM Mountain Time
Venue: Online via ZOOM
Registration: Zoom link is provided in the meeting invitation; contact the POC to request the meeting invitation.
Abstract:
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an array of radio telescopes around the world that use the technique of VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope with the highest angular resolution ever achieved. Using this capability, the EHT released the first image of a black hole on April 10, 2019, accelerating black hole science and creating enormous public impact. Now, a team of scientists and engineers is looking ahead to the next horizon: movies of black holes. In this paper, we give an overview of how the next-generation EHT (ngEHT) Project has adopted a systems engineering approach to the design of future improvements to the EHT array, developing clear traceability from community-defined key science goals. Scheduling, operations, site selection, observing bandwidth, data transport, and data management are some of the many factors that require careful consideration and balance and therefore benefit from intentional systems engineering methods underpinned by a “single source of truth” system model.
Bio(s):
Garret Fitzpatrick is the Project Engineer for the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope -- a project that links together radio telescopes all over the world to create a virtual, Earth-sized array that produced the first image of a black hole in April 2019. Garret leads the engineering effort to design and build new radio telescopes in remote locations and upgrade capabilities of the current EHT array. Garret previously led the product development team at Shell TechWorks, an innovation center for Shell that uses systems and design thinking to develop and deploy new technologies throughout Shell's businesses. Prior to that, Garret served as a systems engineer at two different NASA field centers, leading teams to develop new science payloads for the International Space Station and managing crew survival systems for the Space Shuttle program.
Ryan Chaves is a Systems Engineer and Software Architect in the Central Engineering's Division of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), part of the Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Beyond his experience developing novel, complex products in the medical, automotive, and consumer industries, he joined SAO in 2021 and entered the astrophysics instrumentation domain. On the ngEHT project, he is responsible for the overall requirements and system architecture as well as leading the Monitoring & Control subsystem. He is a staunch advocate and practitioner of MBSE and modern systems & software engineering best practices with a proven record of delivering high-quality, standards-compliant designs.