STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2008-10-07 (Week 41) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * The telemetry rate on Ahead will drop to 480 kbps on October 13. This rate change will take effect with the second pass of the day, on station 45, starting at 17:30 UT. Both spacecraft should continue at this rate until roughly next May. INSTRUMENT AND SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * All subsystems on both spacecraft are nominal, except that the Ahead spacecraft is currently operating on IMU #2. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 40 * The SECCHI midpoint stepped calibration roll on Ahead occured successfully on day 274 (Sep 30) at 06:55 UT. * IMPACT performed real-time commanding for the SEPT detector on Wednesday, day 275 (Oct 1), and on Friday, day 277 (Oct 3). * The average daily downlink was 7.1 gigabits on Ahead and 6.2 gigabits on Behind. Week 41 * There was a MESSENGER fly-by of Mercury on Monday, October 6. * IMPACT sent a single command to Behind on Monday. This did not interfere with the synoptic program. * The intercalibration program ICAL-001 is scheduled for Oct 9, starting at 13:00 UT. SECCHI participates with their regular synoptic program. Week 42 * Ahead will switch to 480 kbps on Oct 13. * An EIT shutterless campaign will occur on Oct 16, and Oct 23. It's not clear whether SECCHI data would be of use for this campaign. Week 43 * No significant activities Week 44 * The 17th momentum dump will be performed on Ahead on Oct 30. * The U.S. will switch to standard time on November 2. Other * The Chandrayaan-1 mission is planned for launch on Oct 23 at 00:51 UT. This is an Indian satellite for studying the Moon. So far, the planned launch has had no impact on the STEREO DSN schedules. * Ahead has just reached the 100 million kilometer mark. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 41: M Oct 06 (280) Messenger - Mercury fly-by T Oct 07 (281) W Oct 08 (282) T Oct 09 (283) ICAL 1, 13:00 UT F Oct 10 (284) S Oct 11 (285) S Oct 12 (286) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 42: M Oct 13 (287) Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 480 kbps T Oct 14 (288) W Oct 15 (289) T Oct 16 (290) JOP 80, EIT shutterless F Oct 17 (291) S Oct 18 (292) S Oct 19 (293) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 43: M Oct 20 (294) T Oct 21 (295) W Oct 22 (296) T Oct 23 (297) JOP 80, EIT shutterless F Oct 24 (298) S Oct 25 (299) S Oct 26 (300) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 44: M Oct 27 (301) T Oct 28 (302) W Oct 29 (303) T Oct 30 (304) Ahead: momentum dump, 12:30 UT F Oct 31 (305) S Nov 01 (306) S Nov 02 (307) Switch to standard time in U.S. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2008: SECCHI Stepped calibration rolls Ahead: Dec 16 Behind: Dec 2 ICAL-001: Nov 3-7, Dec 1-5 * Oct 16,23 JOP 80, EIT shutterless 2009: ICAL-001: Jan 5-9, Jan 26-30, Mar 2-6 SECCHI Stepped calibration rolls Ahead: Mar 10, Jun 9, Sep 2, Nov 24 Behind: Mar 10, Jun 16, Sep 22, Dec 22 * Jan 15,22 JOP 80, EIT shutterless * May 18 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 360 kbps * Jun 8 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 360 kbps * Aug 4 Both: Increase track duration from 4 to 5 hours * Aug 10 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps * Aug 31 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps * Sep 10 Ahead at L4 Lagrange point * Sep 29 Messenger - Mercury fly-by * Oct 25 Behind at L5 Lagrange point