ESA Venus Express Status Report No. 48 – Science Operations
10 Oct 2006 16:03
Report for Period 1 October to 7 October 2006
During the reporting period the mission operations have been conducted according to the plan. The ground and the space segment performance have been nominal.
The TT&C was reconfigured twice during the reporting period, to account for the decreasing separation angle from the Sun (as conjunction approaches). The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
MET (Day)
Date
DOY
VPER#
Main Activity
327
01/10/06
274
163
Routine science operations
TM bit rate change to 57 kbps
328
02/10/06
275
164
Routine science operations
329
03/10/06
276
165
Routine science operations
330
04/10/06
277
166
Routine science operations
331
05/10/06
278
167
Routine science operations
TM bit rate change to 38 kbps
TC bit rate change to 1 kbps
Unused PMs switched off
332
06/10/06
279
168
Routine science operations
333
07/10/06
280
169
Routine science operations
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 280, 16:00z) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 256 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 853 seconds.
Payload Activities
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
This instrument remained inactive during the reporting period.
SPICAV
The instrument is regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
VeRA
The USO is nominally powered but muted.
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 STP22 have been completed successfully and the planning of STP23 (extended two extra passes, up to DOY 289) was completed in time. A pre-check of the payload requests for STP24 was also successful.
DSN key file for the ongoing Solar Corona observations has been produced and sent to DSN.
Preparations for the upcoming solar conjunction phase in October/November 2006 are ongoing. SOR for the upcoming conjunction platform MTL operations have been created and are to be planned in the next cycles.
Medium Term Planning
MTP08 was fully processed and a report generated.
Future Milestones
Throughout the next week short term planning for STP23 and first 2 orbits of STP024 will be performed.
TM bit rate change to 22 kbps will occur on 10 October.
SPS PIT 3-way D/L only (parallel to nominal Cebreros pass) test is scheduled for 5 October.
