ESA Venus Express Status Report No. 54 Routine Science Operations
21 Nov 2006 09:24
Report for Period 12 November to 18 November 2006
During the reporting period the mission operations have been conducted according to the plan. Science operations have been resumed nominally after the end of the solar conjunction and the work-around for the TM burst generation in VIRTIS seems to be effective.
On DoY 318 a problem in the ground station has caused the loss of the complete ground station pass. This has had no effect on the operations.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
| MET (Day) | Date | DOY | VPER# | Main Activity |
| 369 | 12/11/06 | 316 | 205 | Routine Mission operations |
| 370 | 13/11/06 | 317 | 206 | Routine Mission operations |
| 371 | 14/11/06 | 318 | 207 | Routine Mission operations, pass skipped due to GS failure |
| 372 | 15/11/06 | 319 | 208 | Routine Mission operations |
| 373 | 16/11/06 | 320 | 209 | Routine Mission operations |
| 374 | 17/11/06 | 321 | 210 | Routine Mission operations |
| 375 | 18/11/06 | 322 | 211 | Routine Mission operations |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 322, 16:00z) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 254 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 850 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
The instrument is OFF and is not operated.
SPICAV
The instrument is regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
VeRA
The USO is nominally powered but muted. RSI operations, when conducted, are done with TTC chain 1, meaning without USO.
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 STP028 were executed successfully and the planning of STP029 was completed in time.
The science data dump has been delayed by a missed ground station contact on DoY 318 but no data has been lost.
Medium Term Planning
MTP010 planning has been successfully completed.
Long Term Planning
A decision whether to request DSN support for the movie observation, to be performed in April 2007, has not been taken yet.
Future Milestones
The nominal spacecraft configuration and the mission operations are being fully resumed after the superior conjunction phase. The normal pace of operations will now be followed again.
The second Earth occultation season will start in December with additional Radio Science operations with the ESA New Norcia station.
