ESA Venus Express Status Report: No. 13 – Spacecraft Thermal Characterisation
06 Feb 2006 10:43
Report for Period 27 January – 02 February 2006
During the reporting period the Thermal Characterization Scenario with Sun illumination of the cryo face (-X) and the Main Engine face (+Z) has been completed. The MAG instrument has been switched ON, the Star Tracker Stray Light Test has been performed, and a TM bit rate test with the Cebreros Ground Station has been performed.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
|
MET (Day) |
Date |
DOY |
Main Activity |
|
80 |
27/01/06 |
027 |
End cooling/start 5° -Z face exposure for 24 hours |
|
81 |
28/01/06 |
028 |
End -Z face exposure/start cooling |
|
82 |
29/01/06 |
029 |
End cooling/start 5° -X face exposure for 24 hours |
|
83 |
30/01/06 |
030 |
End -X face exposure/start cooling |
|
84 |
31/01/06 |
031 |
End cooling/90° -Z face exposure for 30 minutes |
|
85 |
01/02/06 |
032 |
MAG switch ON, STR-B Alignment in RAM |
|
86 |
02/02/06 |
033 |
TM Bit Rate Test |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 033, 15:00) Venus Express was 32.3 million km from the Earth, 118.6 million km from the Sun, and 17.1 million km from Venus. The one-way signal travel time was 107 seconds.
Spacecraft Status
Thermal
The subsystem is performing nominally.
On DoY 027 the thermal in-flight characterisation continued by exposing the –Z face of the SC at 5° to the Sun for 24 hours. After a 24-hours period of cooling also the -X face has been exposed at 5° to the Sun for 24 hours starting on DoY 029. After another 24-hour cooling period, the –Z face has been exposed at 90° to the Sun for 30 minutes.
Payload Activities
ASPERA
The instrument is off.
MAG
The instrument has been switched ON on DoY032 after the end of the thermal characterisation and will remain ON until DoY044 when preparation for the ME Calibration commence.
PFS
The instrument is off.
SPICAV
The instrument is off.
VeRA
The USO is kept powered but muted.
VIRTIS
The instrument is off.
VMC
The instrument is off.
Future Milestones
Nominal Operations will be moved to New Norcia as from DoY034 to DoY042 to allow the completion of the work to be done in Cebreros.
The Star Tracker Characterisation will take place on DoY 038 and 039.
Test passes with the Cebreros Ground Station are scheduled on DoY040 and 041 to validate the automatic ground station scheduling jobs type of operation which will be used by Venus Express during the Routine Mission.
Further tests will be conducted in the area of TTC to validate the S-Band Uplink strategy in preparation for the Main Engine Calibration.
