ESA Venus Express Status Report No. 92
22 Aug 2007 14:34 Report for Period 12 August to 18 August 2007
Routine observations took place during this reporting period, occurring as planned except for VIRTIS operations. The VIRTIS movie had to be stopped due to an unexplained anomaly of the H-cooling motor current the triggered an OOL. The M unit is not affected by the anomaly as is expected to resume operations on 26 August 2007.
The spacecraft has gone through its closest approach to Earth on 18th of August configured at maximum bit rate of 228 kbps (with HGA2). The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
| MET (Day) | Date | DOY | Main Activity |
| 642 | 12/08/07 | 224 | Routine Operations. Virtis fill state achieved 90%. |
| 643 | 13/08/07 | 225 | Routine Operations. S-Band Test via LGA over NNO. VIRTIS movie interrupted due to Hcool Mot Curr alarm. |
| 644 | 14/08/07 | 226 | Routine Operations. S-Band Test via LGA over NNO. Recovery of data gaps |
| 645 | 15/08/07 | 227 | Routine Operations. |
| 646 | 16/08/07 | 228 | Routine Operations. Command to swap PS not sent. All HK data and the associated command verifications lost. Pass finished at 12:00 for Cebreros maintenance. |
| 647 | 17/08/07 | 229 | Routine Operations. All Aspera commands failed execution. |
| 648 | 18/08/07 | 230 | Routine Operations. Next ASPERA observation CMDs (230:10:48:01) executed nominal. |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 230, 15:00z) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 43.1 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 147 seconds.
Payload Activities
ASPERA
The instrument was operated as part of the routine plan.
MAG
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
PFS
No PFS operations were carried out this week.
SPICAV
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
VeRA
No RSI activities took place this week
VIRTIS
VEX VIRTIS HCool Mot Curr anomaly (VMOC). Since 11 August the HCool Motor current profile had been different with respect to normal past behaviour.
VMC
The instrument is operated as part of the routine plan.
Future Milestones
- Resume VIRTIS operations and investigate the problem
- Release of documentation updates.
