STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2021-12-07 (Week 49) 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 48 (Nov 29-Dec 5) * On day 335 (Dec 1), during the DSS-34 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently between 0945z and 1209z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 38 frames of SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the track and recovered all the affected data. * On day 337 (Dec 3), during the DSS-55 support for Ahead, the transmitter was declared red due to a hardware problem. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 5.1 hours of real-time commanding and 2-way tracking data. Also, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1809z, which resulted in the loss of 85 frames of SSR data. See DR# M114050 for more information. * As of day 339 (Dec 5), 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 6.4 Gbits during this week. * The SSC computer processing STEREO beacon data went down over the weekend, preventing space weather beacon data from being processed. The computer was recovered this morning (2021-12-07), and processing has been resumed. Week 49 (Dec 6-12) * Ahead has thirteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are ten passes at 720 kbps, and three at 480 kbps. * The 60th SECCHI stepped calibration roll maneuver is scheduled for Friday, Dec 10, starting at 13:45 UT. This is the midpoint roll. * Maintenance will be performed on the MOC DMZ on Thursday, Dec 9, between 8-12 local time to replace some of the servers. The MOC will send an email when the maintenance is done, and the instrument teams will need to reconnect. The MOC also suggests that the instrument teams send some NOOPs to verify that the commanding link is working. The SSC will check that data ingest is working correctly. Week 50 (Dec 13-19) * Ahead has thirteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are 12 passes at 720 kbps, and one at 480 kbps. Week 51 (Dec 20-26) * Ahead has twelve passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are nine passes at 720 kbps, two at 480 kbps, and one at 360 kbsp. An ESA Malargue pass is scheduled for Monday, Dec 20. * Maintenance will be performed on the NASA IONet on Tuesday, Dec 21, between 17-19 local time. * APL will be closed for the Christmas holiday on Friday, Dec 24. Week 52 (Dec 27-Jan 2) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage in nominal. There are ten passes at 720 kbps, and one at 480 kbps. * APL will be closed for the New Years holiday on Friday, Dec 31. Week 01 (Jan 3-9) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are six passes at 720 kbps, and five at 480 kbps. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Thursday, Jan 6. * A momentum dump will be performed on Ahead on Tuesday, Jan 4, with ignition at 19:45 UT. Week 02 (Jan 10-16) * Ahead has ten passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are five passes at 720 kbps, and five at 480 kbps. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 49: M Dec 06 (340) T Dec 07 (341) W Dec 08 (342) T Dec 09 (343) F Dec 10 (344) Ahead: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 13:45 S Dec 11 (345) S Dec 12 (346) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 50: M Dec 13 (347) T Dec 14 (348) W Dec 15 (349) T Dec 16 (350) F Dec 17 (351) S Dec 18 (352) S Dec 19 (353) Notes: * Solar Orbiter METIS observations of Comet Leonard, Dec 17-21 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 51: M Dec 20 (354) T Dec 21 (355) W Dec 22 (356) T Dec 23 (357) F Dec 24 (358) Christmas holiday S Dec 25 (359) Christmas S Dec 26 (360) Notes: * Solar Orbiter METIS observations of Comet Leonard, Dec 17-21 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 52: M Dec 27 (361) T Dec 28 (362) W Dec 29 (363) T Dec 30 (364) F Dec 31 (365) New Year holiday S Jan 01 (001) New Year S Jan 02 (002) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 01: M Jan 03 (003) T Jan 04 (004) Ahead: Momentum dump, 19:45 W Jan 05 (005) T Jan 06 (006) F Jan 07 (007) S Jan 08 (008) S Jan 09 (009) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 02: M Jan 10 (010) T Jan 11 (011) W Jan 12 (012) T Jan 13 (013) F Jan 14 (014) S Jan 15 (015) S Jan 16 (016) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2022: * Feb 21-Mar 2 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Feb 22, 26 PSP/Solar Orbiter quadrature observations * Apr 27-30 Comet PANSTARRS in COR2-A field-of-view * May 28-Jun 7 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 2-11 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 4 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * 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: * Feb 18 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * Mar 19-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Apr 7 Ahead: Mercury transit * Jun 15-24 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2026: * Dec 24 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby 2027: * Feb 1 Behind: Mercury transit 2028: * Mar 18 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby 2029: * Jun 10 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * Jun 30 Ahead: Mercury transit 2030: * Sep 3 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby