STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2020-11-24 (Week 48) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally. PLASTIC is in operational mode, but with a high background rate. * 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 47 (Nov 16-22) * On day 323 (Nov 18), during the DSS-35 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 0331z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of six frames of SSR data. MOPs repositioned the SSR pointers on the subsequent DSS-63 support and recovered all affected DSS-35 data. Additionally, this track was conducted at the 720Kbps downlink rate to evaluate the 34-meter antenna performance. The performance was good with 4db of margin, and the increased downlink rate did not cause the reported dropped frames. Therefore, starting in week 50 (12/07/20) MOPs is increasing the default 34-meter downlink rate to 480Kbps below 25 degrees elevation and 720Kbps above 25 degrees. * On day 323 (Nov 18), during the DSS-63 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently from 0403z to 0405z, and again at 0419z due to a sub-reflector problem. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 5360 frames of SSR data. MOPs repositioned the SSR pointers during this support and recovered all affected data. See DR # M112832 for more information. * On day 324 (Nov 19), SECCHI SSR Partition 19 on Ahead reached 100% full at 1956z for 10.5 hours (325-0628z). This was caused by the SSR pointer repositioning during DSS-63 track on day 323 to recover data lost during the DSS-35 and DSS-63 tracks. * As of day 327 (Nov 22), all PLASTIC systems on Ahead are behaving well, except there is a high background count rate, which the team is continuing to monitor. * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 6.0 Gbits during this week. Week 48 (Nov 23-29) * Ahead has nine passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are five passes at 720 kbps, two at 480 kbps, and two at 360 kbps. * Thursday, Nov 26, is Thanksgiving. APL will be closed Thurdsay and Friday, Nov 26-27. * A return-to-service track with station 54, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday, Nov 24, has been moved to Saturday, Nov 28. There will be no instrument commanding or SSR playback during this track. Week 49 (Nov 30-Dec 6) * Ahead has ten passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, one at 480 kbps, and one at 360 kbps. Week 50 (Dec 7-13) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, and three at 480 kbps. * An ESA Cebreros pass is scheduled for Monday, Dec 7, 14:10-16:10. The rate for this pass has been increased to 480 kbps, which will the default for the ESA stations from now on. * The 133rd momentum dump is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec 9, with ignition at 19:00 UT. Week 51 (Dec 14-20) * Ahead has ten passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, and two at 480 kbps. Week 52 (Dec 21-27) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * The 56th SECCHI stepped calibration roll is scheduled for Monday, Dec 21, starting at 13:30 UT. This is the midpoint roll. * APL will be closed for a half day on Christmas Eve, Dec 24, and will be closed all day on Friday, Dec 25, for Christmas. Week 53 (Dec 28-Jan 3) * Ahead has thirteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eleven passes at 720 kbps, and two at 480 kbps. * APL will be closed for a half day on New Year's Eve, Dec 31, and will be closed all day on Friday, Jan 1, for the New Year's holiday. Week 01 (Jan 4-10) * Ahead has eleven tracks during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are five tracks at 720 kbps, and five at 480 kbps. An ESA Cebreros pass is scheduled for Thursday, Jan 7, and an ESA New Norcia track is scheduled for Saturday, Jan 9. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 48: M Nov 23 (328) T Nov 24 (329) W Nov 25 (330) T Nov 26 (331) Thanksgiving F Nov 27 (332) S Nov 28 (333) Ahead: Return-to-service track with station 54 S Nov 29 (334) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 49: M Nov 30 (335) T Dec 01 (336) W Dec 02 (337) T Dec 03 (338) F Dec 04 (339) S Dec 05 (340) S Dec 06 (341) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 50: M Dec 07 (342) T Dec 08 (343) W Dec 09 (344) T Dec 10 (345) F Dec 11 (346) S Dec 12 (347) S Dec 13 (348) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 51: M Dec 14 (349) T Dec 15 (350) W Dec 16 (351) T Dec 17 (352) F Dec 18 (353) S Dec 19 (354) S Dec 20 (355) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 52: M Dec 21 (356) Ahead: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 13:30 UT T Dec 22 (357) W Dec 23 (358) T Dec 24 (359) F Dec 25 (360) Christmas S Dec 26 (361) S Dec 27 (362) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 53: M Dec 28 (363) T Dec 29 (364) W Dec 30 (365) T Dec 31 (366) F Jan 01 (001) New Year S Jan 02 (002) S Jan 03 (003) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 01: M Jan 04 (004) T Jan 05 (005) W Jan 06 (006) T Jan 07 (007) F Jan 08 (008) S Jan 09 (009) S Jan 10 (010) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2021: * Jan 13-23 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Feb 1-19 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensor Synoptics * Feb 20 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Feb 20-25 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensor Checkout Window 2 * Mar 21-24 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensor Checkout Window 3 * Apr 21-28 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensor Synoptics * Apr 25-May 4 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * May 13-Jul 15 Betelgeuse visible in SECCHI HI2 with 180 degree roll * 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