STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2018-08-07 (Week 32) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * Starting August 1, Dave Grant will take over as Project Manager from Ron Dennison who is retiring. * The telemetry assessment review originally scheduled for Friday, Aug 10, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Sep 19, starting at 9:00 AM. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally on the main lobe of the high gain antenna. * Behind has transitioned to a monthly schedule to attempt to recover the spacecraft. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 31 (Jul 30-Aug 5) * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 6.1 Gbits during this week. Week 32 (Aug 6-12) * Parker Solar Probe is currently scheduled for launch on Saturday, Aug 11. STEREO has launch contingency schedules for the next three days. These are not expected to have any impact on data return. * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are four tracks at 720 kbps, three at 360 kbps, two at 240 kbps, and one at 160 kbps. * There are no recovery passes for Behind during the week. Week 33 (Aug 13-19) * The 44th SECCHI stepped calibration roll is scheduled for Tuesday August 14th at 05:55 UT and taking 4.5 hours. This will be the midpoint roll. System momentum will be 1 N-m-s. * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are five tracks at 720 kbps, two at 360 kbps, two at 240 kbps, and one at 160 kbps. * Recovery tracks for Behind using the double diamond search pattern are scheduled for Monday, Aug 13 (battery), Tuesday, Aug 14 and Wednesday, Aug 15 (both carrier). Week 34 (Aug 20-26) * The project interface test originally scheduled for Thursday, Aug 19, has been cancelled. * Ahead has 14 tracks during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are six tracks at 720 kbps, three at 360 kbps, four at 240 kbps, and one at 160 kbps. * There are no recovery passes for Behind during the week. Week 35 (Aug 27-Sep 2) * The 112th momentum dump on Ahead is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug 29, with ignition at 14:30 UT. This will be the 31st dump without using the gyros. * Ahead has 12 tracks during the week, and overall coverage is currently short 4.7 hours between Monday and Tuesday. There are six tracks at 720 kbps, one at 360 kbps, two at 240 kbps, and three at 160 kbps. STEREO currently does not have authorization to use ESA stations to fill in the gap in coverage. * There are no recovery passes for Behind during the week. Week 36 (Sep 3-9) * Monday, Sep 3, is Labor Day, which is an APL holiday. * The DSN network will be down for maintenance between 11-14 UT on Wednesday, Sep 5. This will have no effect on STEREO operations. * Ahead has 11 tracks during the week, and overall coverage is currently short almost 8 hours between Thursday and Saturday. There are six tracks at 720 kbps, two at 360 kbps, and three at 240 kbps. * There are no recovery passes for Behind during the week. Week 37 (Sep 10-16) * There are eight tracks for Ahead during the week, and overall coverage is short 7 hours between Wednesday and Thursday. There are three tracks at 720 kbps, two at 360 kbps, one at 240 kbps, and two at 160 kbps. * There are no recovery passes for Behind during the week. * The reasons for the gaps in coverage starting in week 35 is due to a combination of station 63 in Madrid being down for maintenance until later in September, the launch of Parker Solar Probe, and a general overlap of missions in the same region of the sky. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 31: M Jul 30 (211) T Jul 31 (212) W Aug 01 (213) T Aug 02 (214) F Aug 03 (215) S Aug 04 (216) S Aug 05 (217) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 32: M Aug 06 (218) T Aug 07 (219) W Aug 08 (220) T Aug 09 (221) F Aug 10 (222) S Aug 11 (223) S Aug 12 (224) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 33: M Aug 13 (225) Behind: Recovery track, DSN 14 (search, battery) T Aug 14 (226) Ahead: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 5:55 UT Behind: Recovery track, DSN 14 (search, carrier) W Aug 15 (227) Behind: Recovery track, DSN 14 (search, carrier) T Aug 16 (228) F Aug 17 (229) S Aug 18 (230) S Aug 19 (231) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 34: M Aug 20 (232) T Aug 21 (233) W Aug 22 (234) T Aug 23 (235) F Aug 24 (236) S Aug 25 (237) S Aug 26 (238) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 35: M Aug 27 (239) T Aug 28 (240) W Aug 29 (241) Ahead: Momentum dump, 14:30 UT T Aug 30 (242) F Aug 31 (243) S Sep 01 (244) S Sep 02 (245) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 36: M Sep 03 (246) Labor Day T Sep 04 (247) W Sep 05 (248) T Sep 06 (249) F Sep 07 (250) S Sep 08 (251) S Sep 09 (252) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 37: M Sep 10 (253) T Sep 11 (254) W Sep 12 (255) T Sep 13 (256) F Sep 14 (257) S Sep 15 (258) S Sep 16 (259) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2019: * Mar Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 240 kbps for 34 meter * Apr Behind: Switch downlink rate to 240 kbps for 34 meter 2020: * May Behind: Switch downlink rate to 360 kbps for 34 meter * Jun Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 360 kbps for 34 meter * Jun Behind: Switch downlink rate to 480 kbps for 34 meter * Sep Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 480 kbps for 34 meter 2021: * Jul Behind: Switch downlink rate to 720 kbps for 34 meter * Aug Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 720 kbps for 34 meter 2022: 2023: * May 5 Behind: Mercury transit * Jul 17 Behind: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 13 Ahead: Closest approach to Earth 2024: 2025: * Apr 7 Ahead: Mercury transit 2026: 2027: * Feb 1 Behind: Mercury transit 2028: 2029: * Jun 30 Ahead: Mercury transit