ESA Venus Express Status Report: No. 103
07 Nov 2007 10:40 Report for the Period 28 October to 3 November 2007
The activities during this week cover routine operations in Quadrature. These operations are severely constrained due to the special thermal restrictions that apply during Quadrature phase. The swap from HGA2 to HGA1 was also carried out this week.
VIRTIS operations remained disabled during this period. The rest of observations took place routinely during this reporting period.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
| MET (Day) | Date | DOY | Main Activity |
| 719 | 28/10/07 | 301 | Routine operations |
| 720 | 29/10/07 | 302 | Routine operations. HGA2 –> HGA1 swap. |
| 721 | 30/10/07 | 303 | Routine Operations. VIRTIS commanding re-enabled |
| 722 | 31/10/07 | 304 | Pass skipped for cooldown before science ops |
| 723 | 01/11/07 | 305 | Routine Operations |
| 724 | 02/11/07 | 306 | Pass skipped for cooldown before science ops |
| 725 | 03/11/07 | 307 | Routine Operations. |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 307, 13:00z) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 110.2 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 367 seconds.
Payload Activities
ASPERA
The instrument was operated as part of the routine plan.
MAG
The instrument was operated as part of the routine plan.
PFS
The instrument was not operated during the reporting period.
SPICAV
The instrument was operated as part of the routine plan.
VeRA
No RSI activities took place this week.
VIRTIS
The instrument was not operated during the reporting period. All covers are closed and VIRTIS is in a safe state.
VMC
The instrument was operated as part of the routine plan.
Future Milestones
- Restart of VIRTIS operations – 4 November 2007
- Quadrature phase end – 23 November 2007
