Mars Global Surveyor Status Report 11-17-1999

Wednesday, November 17, 1999 (DOY 315/19:00:00 to DOY 321/19:00:00 UTC)

Launch / Days since Launch = Nov 7, 1996 / 1106 days

Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 230 days

Last Orbit Covered by this Report = 3105

Total Orbits = 4787

Total Mapping Orbits = 3105

Recent Events:

The mm008 sequence continues executing nominally and will continue execution
through November 17. The mm009 sequence has been uplinked to the spacecraft and
will begin execution Nov 18 at 00:00:00 UTC. Spacecraft Test Lab (STL) validation
of the mini-sequences, which will command the Mars Relay (MR) in support of the
DS2 microprobes mission on December 3, will begin Nov 18.

HGA Anomaly:

The HGA inner gimbal continues to decrease and is currently at 69.1 degrees. The
inner gimbal angle will continue decreasing, reaching the location of the gimbal
obstruction at 41.5 deg in early February. Work continues on the implementation of
the new mapping data collection and return plan that will maximize the science data
return for the remainder of the nominal mapping mission. The updated mapping
command blocks have been released to JPL. Work is also proceeding well on the
development of the automated mapping sequence generation tool. System level
validation in the STL should begin in the next couple of weeks.

Spacecraft Health:

All other subsystems continue to report nominal status.

Uplinks:

There have been 15 uplinks to the spacecraft during the last week, including new
star catalogs and ephemeris files, and instrument command loads. Total command
files radiated to the spacecraft since launch is 4097.

Upcoming Events:

1) Power on of the MR is scheduled for November 29.

2) Validation of the DS2 MR mini-sequences, with uplink scheduled for early next
week.