Status Report

ESA Venus Express Status Report No. 106 – End of Quadrature Operations

By SpaceRef Editor
January 6, 2008
Filed under , , ,
ESA Venus Express Status Report No. 106 – End of Quadrature Operations
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12 Dec 2007 08:49 Report for Period 18 November to 24 November 2007 The activities during this week cover routine operations, skipping passes for cooling purposes and the end of the Quadrature Phase on 23 November. VIRTIS operations have continued during the period.

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









































MET (Day) Date DOY Main Activity
740 18/11/07 322 Pass skipped for cooldown before science operations
741 19/11/07 323 Routine Operations
742 20/11/07 324 Pass skipped for cooldown before science operations
743 21/11/07 325 Routine Operations
744 22/11/07 326 Pass skipped for cooldown before science operations.
OCM 12:55-15:55 UT, Δv=8.5 ms-1, executed at apocentre
745 23/11/07 327 Routine Operations.
End of Quadrature
746 24/11/07 328 Routine operations


At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 328, 18:00z) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 133.3 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 444 seconds.


Orbit Control Manoeuvre
The purpose of the OCM, executed at apocentre on 22 November, was to lower the pericentre altitude by 138 km which would decrease the orbital period by 227 seconds. The manoeuvre had a nominal magnitude of 8.493 ms-1.


The calibration within the orbit determination showed a slight over-performance of 2.18% (+185.1 mms-1). The 1-sigma uncertainty on this result is 0.03% (2.6 mms-1). The decrease in pericentre was 3.0 km more than planned and the decrease in orbital period was 5.0 seconds more than planned. This will be compensated for with the reaction wheel off-loading during the next few weeks.


Payload Activities


ASPERA
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.


MAG
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.


PFS
The instrument was not operated during the reporting period.


SPICAV
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.


VeRA
No RSI activities took place this week.


VIRTIS
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.


VMC
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.


Future Milestones



  • Christmas period planning
  • New Norcia and Cebreros scheduling for 2008

SpaceRef staff editor.