STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2012-08-07 (Week 32) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * All subsystems on both spacecraft are nominal. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 31 (Jul 30-Aug 5) * On day 214 (Aug 1), during the DSS-54 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 0443z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of one frame of SSR data. See DR #N108293 for more information. * On day 215 (Aug 2), during the DSS-63 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1007z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 13 frames of SSR data. See DR #N108297 for more information. * On day 215 (Aug 2), during the DSS-54 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1025z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 13 frames of SSR data. See DR #N108295 for more information. * On day 217 (Aug 4), during the DSS-54 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1355z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of one frame of SSR data. A DR has been requested. * On day 217 (Aug 4), during the DSS-45 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently at 2358z and again at 218-0234z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 36 frames of SSR data. A DR has been requested. * There was some discussion about the common turbo decoder lock reports. This is a known software problem within the DSN ground system, and is being investigated. Some test data was taken recently to help understand the problem. * The average daily SSR playback volume during the week was 5.7 gigabits for Ahead, and 5.0 gigabits for Behind. Week 32 (Aug 6-12) * Ahead has 70 meter passes every day of the week except Thursday, Aug 9, with all of them at 720 kbps except Friday, Aug 10. There are 11 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. * Behind has a 70 meter pass on Thursday, Aug 9, using station 63. There are 11 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. Week 33 (Aug 13-19) * Ahead has 70 meter passes every day of the week, with the Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday passes at 720 kbps. There are 8 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Friday, Aug 17. * Behind has a 70 meter pass on Sunday, Aug 19, using station 14. There are 14 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. The station 34 pass on Monday, Aug 13 will be carried out at 240 kbps. ESA New Norcia passes are scheduled for Wednesday, Aug 15, and Saturday, Aug 18. Week 34 (Aug 20-26) * Momentum dumps are scheduled for both spacecraft during the week, with the 49th dump on Ahead scheduled for Tuesday, Aug 21, starting at 15:30 UT, and the 44th dump on Behind scheduled for Wednesday, Aug 22, at 18:00 UT. * Ahead has 70 meter passes every day of the week, with two passes each on Saturday and Sunday. The Monday pass, and the first passes on Saturday and Sunday, all using station 63, will be carried out at 720 kbps. There are 13 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. * Behind has 70 meter passes on Wednesday, Aug 22 (D63), Thursday, Aug 23 (D63 at 720 kbps), and Saturday, Aug 25 (D14). There are 10 passes during the week. Coverage is about 1.4 hours short on Tuesday, Aug 21, but the instruments should be able to ride through this. Otherwise, the overall coverage is nominal. The station 34 pass on Wednesday, Aug 22 and the station 54 pass on Friday, Aug 24, will both be carried out at 240 kbps. The Wednesday station 34 pass was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but the schedule was changed to help out the GRAIL mission. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Friday, Aug 24. Week 35 (Aug 27 - Sep 2) * Ahead has 70 meter passes on Monday, Aug 27 (D63 at 720 kbps), Tuesday, Aug 28 (D14), Wednesday, Aug 29 (D14), and Sunday, Sep 2 (D63 at 720 kbsp, D14). There are 10 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. The station 54 passes on Thursday, Aug 30, and Saturday, Sep 1, will both be carried out at 240 kbps. * Behind has 70 meter passes on Tuesday, Aug 28 (D63), and Friday, Aug 31 (D14). There are 14 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. The station 24 pass on Monday, Aug 27, will be carried out at 240 kbps. ESA New Norcia passes are scheduled for Monday, Aug 27, and Sunday, Sep 2. Week 36 (Sep 3-9) * Monday, Sep 3, is Labor Day. * The 22nd SECCHI stepped calibration roll will be carried out on Tuesday, Sep 4, starting at 11:15 UT. System momentum will be about 4 N-m-s. This is the midpoint roll. Midpoint is actually the week before. * Ahead has 70 meter passes on Friday, Sep 7 (D14), Saturday, Sep 8 (D14 at 720 kbps), and Sunday, Sep 9 (D63). There are 11 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. An ESA Cebreros pass is scheduled for Monday, Sep 3. * Behind has 70 meter passes on Monday, Sep 3 (D14), Friday, Sep 7 (D63), and Saturday, Sep 8 (D63). There are 12 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. The station 65 pass on Monday, Sep 3, and the station 54 pass on Sunday, Sep 9, will both be carried out at 240 kbps. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Thursday, Sep 6. Week 37 (Sep 10-16) * Ahead has 70 meter passes on Monday, Sep 10 (D63), Tuesday, Sep 11 (D63), Wednesday, Sep 12 (D14), Saturday, Sep 15 (D14), and Sunday, Sep 16 (D63). There are 10 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. * Behind has 70 meters every day between Tuesday through Sunday, Sep 11-16. There are 9 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Tuesday, Sep 11. Week 38 (Sep 17-23) * Ahead has 70 meter passes every day of the week. There are 14 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Tuesday, Sep 18. * Behind has 70 meter passes on Monday, Sep 17 (D63), Wednesday, Sep 19 (D14), Thursday, Sep 20 (D14), and Friday, Sep 21 (D63). There are 12 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. The station 45 passes on Wednesday, Sep 19, and Friday, Sep 21, will be carried out at 240 kbps. ESA New Norcia passes are scheduled for Tuesday, Sep 18, and Sunday, Sep 23. * The Hubble space telescope will be making special observations of the planet Jupiter on Sep 20 to observe the dimming caused by a transit of Venus across the face of the Sun as seen from Jupiter. These observations will test the ability to extract information about Venus's atmosphere by observing the dimming in multiple bandpasses, and will serve to test how this procedure can be used to explore the atmospheres of exoplanets. Simultaneous observations of the Sun from SDO and STEREO Ahead are desired to monitor possible solar activity which could affect the measurements. Other * A question was raised about the lack of Canberra support for the Behind spacecraft for the two weeks prior to last Friday. There was a station 45 pass on Saturday, and two station 34 passes on Aug 13-14 with a total of 11 hours of coverage, which should help with the orbit determination. Tracking data from New Norcia is expected soon. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 32: M Aug 06 (219) T Aug 07 (220) W Aug 08 (221) T Aug 09 (222) F Aug 10 (223) S Aug 11 (224) S Aug 12 (225) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 33: M Aug 13 (226) T Aug 14 (227) W Aug 15 (228) T Aug 16 (229) F Aug 17 (230) S Aug 18 (231) S Aug 19 (232) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 34: M Aug 20 (233) T Aug 21 (234) Ahead: Momentum dump, 15:30 UT W Aug 22 (235) Behind: Momentum dump, 18:00 UT T Aug 23 (236) F Aug 24 (237) S Aug 25 (238) S Aug 26 (239) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 35: M Aug 27 (240) T Aug 28 (241) W Aug 29 (242) T Aug 30 (243) F Aug 31 (244) S Sep 01 (245) S Sep 02 (246) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 36: M Sep 03 (247) Labor Day T Sep 04 (248) Behind: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 11:15 UT W Sep 05 (249) T Sep 06 (250) F Sep 07 (251) S Sep 08 (252) S Sep 09 (253) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 37: M Sep 10 (254) T Sep 11 (255) W Sep 12 (256) T Sep 13 (257) F Sep 14 (258) S Sep 15 (259) S Sep 16 (260) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 38: M Sep 17 (261) T Sep 18 (262) W Sep 19 (263) T Sep 20 (264) Ahead: Venus transit as seen from Jupiter F Sep 21 (265) S Sep 22 (266) S Sep 23 (267) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2012: * Aug DAWN - Vesta departure * Nov 4 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps * Nov 13 Total solar eclipse, south Pacific 2013: * May 3 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps * Dec 12 Ahead: Mercury transit 2014: * Jan 20 Behind: End use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Apr 21 Behind: Resume use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Apr 29 Behind: Mercury transit * Oct 15 Behind: End use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet 2015: * Feb DAWN - Ceres arrival * Jan 20 - Mar 28 (TBC) Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Mar 17 - Jul 14 (TBC) Ahead: Spacecraft behind Sun * Jul 2 Behind: Resume use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Aug 25 - Oct 19 (TBC) Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Sep 25 Behind: End use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Jul DAWN - End of nominal mission 2016: * Apr 3 Behind: Resume use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet 2017: * Jul 11 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps * Jul 22 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps 2018: * Mar 5 Ahead: Mercury transit