ESA Venus Express Status No. 41 – Successful Orbit Control Manoeuvre – Report for Period 13 August to 19 August 2006
22 Aug 2006 11:49
Report for Period 13 August to 19 August 2006
During the reporting period the Venus Express mission operations have been conducted according to the plan. The ground and the space segment performance have been nominal.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
| MET (Day) | Date | DOY | VPER# | Main Activity |
| 278 | 13/08/06 | 225 | 114 | Routine science operations |
| 279 | 14/08/06 | 226 | 115 | Routine science operations |
| 280 | 15/08/06 | 227 | 116 | Routine science operations |
| 281 | 16/08/06 | 228 | 117 | Routine science operations |
| 282 | 17/08/06 | 229 | 118 | Routine science operations |
| 283 | 18/08/06 | 230 | 119 | Routine science operations, Orbit Control Manoeuvre (1.14 ms-1) at pericenter |
| 284 | 19/08/06 | 231 | 120 | Routine science operations |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 231, 15:00) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 240 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 801 seconds.
Payload
ASPERA
The instrument is regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
MAG
The instrument is regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
PFS
The instrument is currently OFF and is not included in the routine planning. Next PFS tests in Venus pointing attitude are planned for the first 4 orbits of MTP 6 (24-27 September 2006)
SPICAV
The instrument is regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
VeRA
The USO is nominally powered but muted. Occultation Observations with USO un-muted took place on DOY 226, 228, and 231.
VIRTIS
The instrument is regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
VMC
The instrument is regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
Mission Planning
Short Term Planning
Operations of STP15 have been completed successfully and the planning of STP16 was completed in time. The problem recently detected with boundary conditions for the radio science activities is temporarily being worked-around and a proper SW fix is being prepared. A pre-check of the payload requests for STP17 was also successful.
Medium Term Planning
Venus Express Science Operations Centre (VSOC) and Flight Dynamics (FDyn) products for MTP007 are now available and planning will start soon. This planning will also include the conjunction phase. For MTP006 and MTP007 no plan of DSN resources is available yet, therefore analysis will be done with a fake plan assuming worst case observations duration.
Future Milestones
Throughout the next week focus will be on the planning exercise for MTP7 while short term planning for CP17 and pre-checks for CP18 will commence.
On DOY 236 a manoeuvre at apocenter will change the pericenter altitude from 381 to 250 km. An operational strategy for the upcoming solar conjunction phase in October/November 2006 is being developed.
