ESA Rosetta Status Report 9 August 2004

Report for week 30 July to 6 August 2004

In the reporting period the spacecraft was monitored daily (with the exception of two passes) to complete the upload and verification of version 7 of the on-board software. Following the monitoring of the previous week the go ahead for finalization of v7 installation was given on 2 August. From now on the Rosetta spacecraft will be fully controlled via the new software.

Final tests carried out in this period were:

1 August

• Further Navigation Cameras test, including slews with the cameras in tracking mode


• Redundant RTU Payload Core and the redundant Solar Array Drive electronics

On 2 and 3 August the loaded command files for processors 2 and 3 patching were executed. Memory dumps and comparisons with the ground software images confirmed the correct patching of the redundant processors with the new on-board avionics software v7.

The OSIRIS instrument was activated manually during the New Norcia pass on 4 August, to support data generation and retrieval tests which were carried out on the following day remotely from the PI’s home institute.

The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:

At the end of the last New Norcia pass in the reporting period (DOY 219) Rosetta was at 73.6 million Km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 4 min 5 sec.

Please note that the next two issues of this report will occur on a bi-weekly basis, that is on 20 August and on 3 September. After that the normal weekly periodicity will re-start.