STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2013-06-25 (Week 26) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * External connectivity to the STEREO MOC, for instrument commanding, real-time telemetry, and data products, will be unavailable this Wednesday, June 26th, for a one hour period between 5 PM and 6 PM EDT due to an APL firewall upgrade. There are no tracks during this time period. Remote users may need to reconnect for real-time telemetry reception after 6 PM EDT. The next track is with BEHIND starting at 8 PM EDT. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * All subsystems on both spacecraft are nominal. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 25 (Jun 17-23) * On day 169 (Jun 18), during the DSS-26 support for Ahead, command bind was aborted at 1431z due to a one second transmitter glitch. This anomaly had no impact on operations since all command activity was completed. See DR #G114014 for more information. * On day 170 (Jun 19), during the DSS-65 support for Ahead, telemetry and commanding was lost beginning at 0726z through 0809z due to a power outage at the Madrid complex. Also, SSR data was lost while re-establishing the uplink between 0847z and 0848z. The power outage anomaly resulted in the loss of 45 minutes of SSR data. Also during the track, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently between 0441z and 0442z, and again at 0828z. The turbo decoder anomaly resulted in the loss of 72 frames of SSR data. See DRs #M107361, #N108956, and #N108957 for more information. * The MOC clarified that the reportage of 45 minutes of SSR being lost refers to playback time, and not observing time. * On day 172 (Jun 21), during the DSS-26 support for Ahead, telemetry was lost beginning at 1947z through 2002z due to losing receiver lock because a timing rack was accidentally powered off. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 15 minutes (23407 frames) of SSR data. See DR #G114021 for more information. * On day 173 (Jun 22), during the DSS-63 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 0543z through 0604z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of eleven frames of SSR data. See DR #M107372 for more information. * On day 168 (Jun 17), during the DSS-14 support for Behind, telemetry was not available in the MOC between 2108z and 2121z due to a communications rack being powered off while correcting a cooling problem. All SSR data were recovered. See DR #G114011 for more information. * On day 169 (Jun 18), during the DSS-25 support for Behind, telemetry was lost beginning at 2158z through 2206z due to multiple warning alarms for the telemetry processor, which was rebooted. The telemetry processor anomaly resulted in the loss of eight minutes of SSR data. Also during the track, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently between 2048z and 2150z, and again between 2212z and 170-0145z. The turbo decoder anomaly resulted in the loss of 1726 frames of SSR data. See DRs #G114015 and #N108966 for more information. * On day 170 (Jun 19), during the DSS-63 support for Behind, the receiver and ranging processor unexpectedly went out of lock between 1613z-1615z. Also during this track, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 1501z through 1756z. These anomalies resulted in the loss of 9662 frames of SSR data. See DRs #M107365 and #M107366 respectively for more information. * On day 172 (Jun 21), during the DSS-63 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 1609z through 1834z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 58 frames of SSR data. See DR #M107371 for more information. * On day 173 (Jun 22), during the DSS-63 support for Behind, the receiver and ranging processor unexpectedly went out of lock between 1313z-1315z and again between 1338z-1339z. Also during this track, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 1249z through 1337z. These anomalies resulted in the loss of 2313 frames of SSR data. See DRs #M107365 and #N108967 respectively for more information. * On day 174 (Jun 23), during the DSS-54 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1522z and again at 1835z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of two frames of SSR data. See DR #N108968 for more information. * On day 169 (Jun 18), the 25th SECCHI stepped calibration on Behind was executed at 1700z for the perihelion in the orbit. * The average daily SSR playback volume during the week was 3.5 gigabits for Ahead, and 4.0 gigabits for Behind. Week 26 (Jun 24-30) * On Wednesday, Jun 26, station 54 will be shadowing the Behind pass on station 55 to test a new antenna controller. * Ahead has 13 passes during the week, and overall coverage is short 5 hours, mainly on Wednesday, Jun 26. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Monday, Jun 24 (D14), Thursday, Jun 27 (D14, D43), Saturday, Jun 29 (D14 at 720 kbps), and Sunday, Jun 30 (D63 at 720 kbps, D43). The following passes will be carried out at 160 kbps: Tuesday, Jun 25 (D26), and Wednesday, Jun 26 (D65). An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Tuesday, Jun 25. * Behind has 12 passes during the week, and overall coverage is short 7.2 hours, mainly on Wednesday and Thursday. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Tuesday, Jun 25 (D63 at 720 kbps), Friday, Jun 28 (D43, D63 at 720 kbps), Saturday, Jun 29 (D63 at 720 kbsp), and Sunday, Jun 30 (D63 at 720 kbps). The following passes will be carried out at 160 kbps: Wednesday, Jun 26 (D54), Thursday, Jun 27 (D26), and Saturday, Jun 29 (D26). Week 27 (Jul 1-7) * The 58th momentum dump is scheduled for Ahead on Jul 1, with ignition at 16:00 UT. * A return-to-service track for station 24 is scheduled with the Ahead spacecraft on Wednesday, Jul 3. There will be no SSR downlink or instrument commanding during this track. * Jul 4 is Independence Day, which is a holiday at APL. * Ahead has 9 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Friday, Jul 5, and Sunday, Jul 7, both using station 63 at 720 kbps. The following passes will be carried out at 160 kbps: Monday, Jul 1 (D26), and Thursday, Jul 4 (D15). * Behind has 10 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Monday, Jul 1 (D43), Wednesday, Jul 3 (D63 at 720 kbps), Friday, Jul 5 (D14 at 720 kbps), Saturday, Jul 6 (D63 at 720 kbps), and Sunday, Jul 7 (D63 at 720 kbps). Week 28 (Jul 8-14) * Additional engineering demos using attenuators with the STEREO beacon broadcast on Behind are scheduled for Monday, Jul 8 (D24), Tuesday, Jul 9 (D55), and Saturday, Jul 13 (D65). * The 18th HGA calibrations are scheduled for the Ahead spacecraft on Tuesday, Jul 9, at 17:00 UT, and for the Behind spacecraft on Wednesday, Jul 10, at 16:00 UT. * A return-to-service track for station 55 with the Ahead spacecraft is scheduled for Wednesday, Jul 10. There will be no SSR downlink or instrument commanding during this track. * The 53rd momentum dump on Behind is scheduled for Thursday, Jul 11, with ignition at 17:00 UT. * Ahead has 10 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Monday, Jul 8, Wednesday, Jul 10, Thursday, Jul 11, and Friday, Jul 12, all using station 14. The station 15 pass on Saturday, Jul 13, will be carried out at 160 kbps. * Behind has 9 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Monday, Jul 8 (D63 at 720 kbps), Tuesday, Jul 9 (D63 at 720 kbps), and Saturday, Jul 13 (D14 at 720 kbps). The following passes will be carried out at 160 kbps: Saturday, Jul 13 (D65), and Sunday, Jul 14 (D24). Week 29 (Jul 15-21) * Additional engineering demos using attenuators with the STEREO beacon broadcast on Behind are scheduled for Monday, Jul 15 (D25), and Wednesday, Jul 17 (D34). * Ahead has 8 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Monday, Jul 15 (D14), Wednesday, Jul 17 (D14), Thursday, Jul 18 (D43, D14), Friday, Jul 19 (D43), Saturday, Jul 20 (D14), and Sunday, Jul 21 (D14). * Behind has 12 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Monday, Jul 15 (D43), and Wednesday, Jul 17 (D43, D14 at 720 kbps). The following passes will be carried out at 160 kbps: Saturday, Jul 20 (D54, D24). Week 30 (Jul 22-28) * A Project Interface Test will be carried out on station 26 with Behind on Wednesday, Jul 24, to test uplink software. There will be no SSR playback or instrument commanding during this test. * Ahead has 10 tracks during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Tuesday, Jul 23 (D14), Wednesday, Jul 24 (D43), Thursday, Jul 25 (D14), and Saturday, Jul 27 (D14 at 720 kbps). The station 26 pass on Sunday, Jul 28, will be carried out at 240 kbps. * Behind has 14 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. A 70 meter pass is scheduled for Thursday, Jul 25 (D43 at 720 kbps). The station 26 pass on Saturday, Jul 27, will be carried out at 240 kbps. The following passes will be carried out at 160 kbps: Monday, Jul 22 (D26), Friday, Jul 26 (D26 twice), and Sunday, Jul 28 (D54). Week 31 (Jul 29-Aug 4) * Ahead has 9 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Monday, Jul 29 (D14), Tuesday, Jul 30 (D14), Thursday, Aug 1 (D14), and Friday, Aug 2 (D14, D43). The following passes will be carried out at 160 kbps: Wednesday, Jul 31 (D54), and Saturday, Aug 3 (D54, D25). * Behind has 10 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. A 70 meter pass is scheduled for Tuesday, Jul 30 (D14 at 720 kbps). The following passes will be carried out at 160 kbps: Tuesday, Jul 30 (D55), and Sunday, Aug 4 (D55). Week 32 (Aug 5-11) * Ahead has 10 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Tuesday, Aug 6 (D14), Wednesday, Aug 7 (D14), and Sunday, Aug 11 (D63). The following passes will be carried out at 160 kbps: Thursday, Aug 8 (D54) and Saturday, Aug 10 (D45). * Behind has 11 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. 70 meter passes are scheduled for Thursday, Aug 8 (D14), and Sunday, Aug 11 (D63 at 720 kbps). The station 26 pass on Wednesday, Aug 7, will be carried out at 160 kbps. Other * A change has been approve to modify the autonomy rule concerning recorder filling to address the recent problems seen by SECCHI. This change is currently being tested on the hardware in the loop simulator. In the meantime, the MOC has been manually scheduling pointer moves during long tracks to avoid potential problems. * There was some discussion of the large number of DRs submitted for small outages. These outages, which correspond to about 0.1% of the telemetry, appear to be mainly due to four causes: - A downconverter error at station 63 which has been fixed. - Short burst of RFI at Madrid. The cause of these RFI problems is being investigated. - A problem with the Turbo decoder stopping iterating. A COTS decoder is expected to be implemented sometime toward the end of the year, which may alleviate this problem. - The noise floor peaking up when operating close to margin. DSN requests that the MOC stop requesting DRs after the fact for these small outages. The MOC agrees with this approach, and will take a look to figure out what's reasonable. These outages will be still be noted on the MOC status reports. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 26: M Jun 24 (175) T Jun 25 (176) W Jun 26 (177) Behind: D54 shadow track during D55 pass T Jun 27 (178) F Jun 28 (179) S Jun 29 (180) S Jun 30 (181) Notes: * Significant telemetry shortages are expected during the week for both spacecraft. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 27: M Jul 01 (182) Ahead: Momentum dump, 16:00 UT T Jul 02 (183) W Jul 03 (184) Ahead: Return-to-service track for station 24 T Jul 04 (185) Independence Day F Jul 05 (186) S Jul 06 (187) S Jul 07 (188) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 28: M Jul 08 (189) Behind: Engineering demo with station 24 T Jul 09 (190) Ahead: HGA calibration, 17:00 Behind: Engineering demo with station 55 W Jul 10 (191) Ahead: Return-to-service track for station 55 Behind: HGA calibration, 16:00 T Jul 11 (192) Behind: Momentum dump, 17:00 F Jul 12 (193) S Jul 13 (194) Behind: Engineering demo with station 65 S Jul 14 (195) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 29: M Jul 15 (196) Behind: Engineering demo with station 25 T Jul 16 (197) W Jul 17 (198) Behind: Engineering demo with station 34 T Jul 18 (199) F Jul 19 (200) S Jul 20 (201) S Jul 21 (202) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 30: M Jul 22 (203) T Jul 23 (204) W Jul 24 (205) Behind: PIT test with station 26 T Jul 25 (206) F Jul 26 (207) S Jul 27 (208) S Jul 28 (209) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 31: M Jul 29 (210) T Jul 30 (211) W Jul 31 (212) T Aug 01 (213) F Aug 02 (214) S Aug 03 (215) S Aug 04 (216) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 32: M Aug 05 (217) T Aug 06 (218) W Aug 07 (219) T Aug 08 (220) F Aug 09 (221) S Aug 10 (222) S Aug 11 (223) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2013: * Nov 28 Both: Perihelion passage of Comet ISON http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/comet_ison/ * 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 * Sep 07-Nov 15 Behind: Passage of Comet Siding Spring through HI2-B * Oct 15 Behind: End use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Oct 17 Behind: Comet Siding Spring encounter with Mars 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 * Jul Juno arrival at Jupiter 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