ESA Venus Express Status Report No. 55 Routine Science Operations
29 Nov 2006 09:57
Report for Period 19 November to 25 November 2006
During the reporting period the mission operations have been conducted according to the plan. Science operations have been continued nominally after the end of the solar conjunction and the work-around for the TM burst generation in VIRTIS is effective.
A transient problem on the Cebreros uplink XHPA caused a short loss of uplink on DOY 329 and required procedural recovery of onboard recorded data. All data was successfully recovered.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
| MET (Day) | Date | DOY | VPER# | Main Activity |
| 376 | 19/11/06 | 323 | 212 | Routine Mission operations |
| 377 | 20/11/06 | 324 | 213 | Routine Mission operations |
| 378 | 21/11/06 | 325 | 214 | Routine Mission operations |
| 379 | 22/11/06 | 326 | 215 | Routine Mission operations |
| 380 | 23/11/06 | 327 | 216 | Routine Mission operations |
| 381 | 24/11/06 | 328 | 217 | Routine Mission operations |
| 382 | 25/11/06 | 329 | 218 | Routine Mission operations. Transient loss uplink from Cebreros. |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 329, 16:00z) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 254 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 846 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. Two way SCO observations were performed using TRSP1 over DSS-15 on the pass starting on DOY 325 and over DSS-43 on the pass starting DOY 327.
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 STP029 were executed successfully and the planning of STP030 was completed in time.
Long Term Planning
A decision whether to request DSN support for the movie observation has not been taken yet.
Future Milestones
The second Earth occultation season will start in December with additional Radio Science operations with the ESA New Norcia station.
