STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2020-02-18 (Week 8) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally. PLASTIC is in the process of returning to nominal operations after suffering a voltage anomaly on Dec 5. See more information below. * Four years after the initial loss of communications anomaly with the Behind observatory, NASA has directed to cease periodic recovery operations with the last support on October 17, 2018. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 07 (Feb 10-16) * On day 045 (Feb 14), the entire DSS-14 track for Ahead was lost because the antenna was declared red due to a water leak affecting the cooling of the equipment. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 3.6 hours of real-time telemetry, command and tracking data, as well as 24 hours of SECCHI SSR data. SSR pointers were repositioned on the subsequent support for all in-situ instruments and all missing data was recovered. The SECCHI SSR pointer was not repositioned because ~34 hours had elapse since the last contact and MOps could not predict how much data SECCHI had recorded. For more information, see DR #G120889. * On day 042 (Feb 11), the 52nd SECCHI stepped calibration was executed at 1200z for midpoint in the Ahead orbit. This was the 21st SECCHI stepped calibration roll conducted without gyro use. This calibration was a redo in response to a new particle on the COR1 objective, which occurred a few hours after the previous calibration on Jan 14. * On day 043 (Feb 12), the PLASTIC team continued to step the Post Acceleration (PAC) power supply high voltage. All PLASTIC systems are behaving well at this time. * On day 046 (Feb 15), the PLASTIC team discovered the solar wind data stopped updating and the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) settings reset to zero. The team believes that a transient event may have occurred on the instrument, which disrupted the DAC board. The team will be commanding on day 048 (Feb 17) to investigate this incident. * The PLASTIC team performed some commanding yesterday, Feb 17. The DAC high voltage was set to zero, and the power supply was disabled. The HV tables were dumped to check for errors. * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 6.3 Gbits during this week. Week 08 (Feb 17-23) * Ahead has twelve passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eleven passes at 720 kbps, and one at 360 kbps. Week 09 (Feb 24-Mar 1) * The 126th momentum dump is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb 26, with ignition at 19:30 UT. This will be the 45th momentum dump without using the gyros. * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are 10 passes at 720 kbps, and one at 360 kbps. Week 10 (Mar 2-8) * Daily savings time in the US begins on March 8. * Ahead has fifteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, and seven at 360 kbps. The station 25 pass on day 65 (Mar 5) was changed to station 14. Week 11 (Mar 9-15) * Ahead has fourteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are ten passes at 720 kbps, three at 360 kbps, and one at 240 kbps. Week 12 (Mar 16-22) * Ahead has fourteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eleven passes at 720 kbps, and three at 360 kbps. * A three links per operator project interface test will be carried out with station 63 on Wednesday, Mar 18, 18:35-21:35 UT. There will be no instrument commanding or SSR downlink during this test. Week 13 (Mar 23-29) * Ahead has thirteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are ten passes at 720 kbps, and three at 360 kbps. Other * MOC welcomes Cory St. John to the team. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 08: M Feb 17 (048) T Feb 18 (049) W Feb 19 (050) T Feb 20 (051) F Feb 21 (052) S Feb 22 (053) S Feb 23 (054) Notes: * PLASTIC in the process of being recovered to normal operations after power cycling. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 09: M Feb 24 (055) T Feb 25 (056) W Feb 26 (057) Ahead: Momentum dump, 19:30 UT T Feb 27 (058) F Feb 28 (059) S Feb 29 (060) S Mar 01 (061) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 10: M Mar 02 (062) T Mar 03 (063) W Mar 04 (064) T Mar 05 (065) F Mar 06 (066) S Mar 07 (067) S Mar 08 (068) Start of daylight savings time in US ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 11: M Mar 09 (069) T Mar 10 (070) W Mar 11 (071) T Mar 12 (072) F Mar 13 (073) S Mar 14 (074) S Mar 15 (075) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 12: M Mar 16 (076) T Mar 17 (077) W Mar 18 (078) T Mar 19 (079) F Mar 20 (080) S Mar 21 (081) S Mar 22 (082) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 13: M Mar 23 (083) T Mar 24 (084) W Mar 25 (085) T Mar 26 (086) F Mar 27 (087) S Mar 28 (088) S Mar 29 (089) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2020: * Apr 27-May 3 Solar Orbiter along Sun-Earth line (TBC after launch) * 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 * Jun 2-13 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jul 11 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby, in HI2-A field-of-view * Sep Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 480 kbps for 34 meter * Sep 22-Oct 2 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2021: * Jan 13-23 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Feb 20 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Apr 25-May 4 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jul Behind: Switch downlink rate to 720 kbps for 34 meter * Aug Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 720 kbps for 34 meter * Aug 5-15 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Oct 16 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Nov 17-26 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2022: * Feb 21-Mar 2 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * May 28-Jun 7 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 2-11 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Dec 7-16 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2023: * Mar 13-23 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * May 5 Behind: Mercury transit * Jun 17-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jul 17 Behind: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 13 Ahead: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 21 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Sep 23-Oct 3 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Dec 25-Jan 3 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2024: * Mar 26-Apr 4 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jun 26-Jul 5 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 26-Oct 5 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Nov 6 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby, in HI2-A field-of-view * Dec 20-29 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2025: * Mar 19-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Apr 7 Ahead: Mercury transit * Jun 15-24 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2026: 2027: * Feb 1 Behind: Mercury transit 2028: 2029: * Jun 30 Ahead: Mercury transit