Venus Express Status: Passive Cruise Phase Begins
Passive Cruise Phase Begins
09 Jan 2006 14:40 Report for Period 16 December 2005 – 05 January 2006
During the reporting period the spacecraft has been configured for a passive cruise phase and the only activities conducted on top of the routine ones are the DDOR tests with ESA (NNOCEB) and DSN (GDS-CAN) stations.
The spacecraft behaviour has been nominal throughout the reporting period.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
MET (Day) | Date | DOY | Main Activity |
38 | 16/12/05 | 350 | SC Configuration for Cruise phase |
39 | 17/12/05 | 351 | SC Monitoring |
40 | 18/12/05 | 352 | SC Monitoring |
41 | 19/12/05 | 353 | SC Monitoring |
42 | 20/12/05 | 354 | SC Monitoring and ESA DDOR Test 1 |
43 | 21/12/05 | 355 | SC Monitoring, ESA DDOR Test 2, DSN DDOR Test 1 |
44 | 22/12/05 | 356 | SC Monitoring |
45 | 23/12/05 | 357 | SC Monitoring |
46 | 24/12/05 | 358 | SC Monitoring |
47 | 25/12/05 | 359 | Skipped |
48 | 26/12/05 | 360 | SC Monitoring |
49 | 27/12/05 | 361 | SC Monitoring |
50 | 28/12/05 | 362 | SC Monitoring |
51 | 29/12/05 | 363 | SC Monitoring |
52 | 30/12/05 | 364 | SC Monitoring |
53 | 31/12/05 | 365 | Pass lost |
54 | 01/01/06 | 1 | Sc Monitoring (additional pass taken due to loss on DoY 365) |
55 | 02/01/06 | 2 | SC Monitoring |
56 | 03/01/06 | 3 | SC Monitoring |
57 | 04/01/06 | 4 | SC Monitoring |
58 | 05/01/06 | 5 | SC Monitoring (over NNO) |
At the end of the last NNO pass in the reporting period (DOY 006, 06:00) Venus Express was 15.5 million km from the Earth, 131.7 million km from the Sun, and 25.5 million km from Venus. The one-way signal travel time was 52 seconds.
Future Milestones
The coming week will mark a “close to inferior conjunction” condition, therefore, no major operations are planned. The actual conjunction condition will be reached on DoY 011 at around 18:00 when the angular distance between the Sun and the spacecraft as seen from the Earth will be approximately 1.6 degrees. No significant impact is foreseen on the RF link.
On DoY 006 a RSI test will take place over New Norcia.
On DoY 008 a passive ASPERA calibration will be conducted via MTL.
