Status Report

ESA Venus Express Status Report No. 51 – Conjuntion Operations

By SpaceRef Editor
November 16, 2006
Filed under , , ,
ESA Venus Express Status Report No. 51 – Conjuntion Operations
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31 Oct 2006 10:20

Report for Period 22 October to 28 October 2006

During the reporting period the mission operations have been conducted according to the plan. A commanding test consisting of sending a total of 1600 ping commands was conducted during the pass on DoY 297 at an angular separation of 1.3° from the Sun.

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


















































MET (Day) Date DOY VPER# Main Activity
348 22/10/06 295 184 Conjunction operations
349 23/10/06 296 185 Conjunction operations
350 24/10/06 297 186 Conjunction operations, Commanding test
351 25/10/06 298 187 Conjunction operations
352 26/10/06 299 188 Conjunction operations
353 27/10/06 300 189 Conjunction operations
354 28/10/06 301 190 Conjunction operations


At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 301, 16:00z) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 256 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 856 seconds.



Payload Activities


ASPERA
The instrument is OFF throughout the conjunction period.


MAG
The instrument is OFF throughout the conjunction period.


PFS
The instrument is OFF and remains inactive.


SPICAV
The instrument is OFF throughout the conjunction period.


VeRa
The USO is nominally powered but muted. Solar corona observations using the DSN 70m station in Canberra were performed on DoY 295, 297, 298.


VIRTIS
The instrument is OFF throughout the conjunction period.


VMC
The instrument is OFF throughout the conjunction period.



Mission Planning


Short Term Planning
The DSN key file for solar corona observations in STP26 has been produced and sent to DSN.


Medium Term
Planning MTP09 was processed again to take into account the passes in January 2007 which have been shortened to allow station maintenance.


Long Term Planning
The FECS file was generated covering the period up until the end of MTP012. VSOC is to provide to VMOC Radio Science New Norcia requirements for October to December 2007.



Future Milestones


The spacecraft is planned to exit conjunction on 9 November (DoY 313).

SpaceRef staff editor.