STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2008-12-02 (Week 49) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * The DNS/DHCP servers at APL will be undergoing maintenance on Dec 13. Computers should continue to be accessible by IP address, but access by name may not be available while the maintenance is going on. The duration of this event is expected to be 7 hours, but the start time is not yet known. 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 48 * DSN schedule changes were made late on day 331 (Nov 26) because the station 26 transmitter went red. This caused the Friday pass on Ahead (day 333, Nov 28) to be switched to station 15. The track was 35 minutes shorter, but the track was completed as planned. However, seven minutes of telemetry was lost due to operator error in attempting to adjust for the shortened track. * During the Behind track on day 335 (Nov 30), the uplink power on station 65 was limited to 5 kW which was insufficient to close the command loop at the current spacecraft distance. Therefore there was no commanding or tracking during this pass. The same problem occured during the Ahead pass yesterday (Dec 1). The next planned use of track 65 is on Thursday (Dec 4) on Ahead. The situation is being looked into, and APL will advise the instrument teams as soon as it is resolved. * A question was raised about whether the station problems was affecting FDF's ability to provide an orbital solution. So far, it does not appear to be a problem. * The 12th momentum dump was successfully carried out on Behind on Monday, day 329 (Nov 24). A delta-V of 0.0732 m/s was imparted. Week 49 * The aphelion SECCHI stepped calibration roll on Ahead was carried out today. At the time of the telecon, the following pass had not yet started. Week 50 * The DNS/DHCP servers at APL will be undergoing maintenance on Saturday, Dec 13. See the announcement above for details. Week 51 * Ahead will reach aphelion at 05:43 UT on Monday, day 350 (Dec 15). * The 18th momentum dump is scheduled for Ahead on day 352 (Dec 17) at 13:00 UT. * The midpoint stepped calibration roll on Behind is scheduled for Tuesday, day 351 (Dec 16) at 03:50 UT. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 49: M Dec 01 (336) T Dec 02 (337) Ahead: SECCHI calibration roll, 14:50 UT W Dec 03 (338) T Dec 04 (339) ICAL001, 14:00 UT F Dec 05 (340) S Dec 06 (341) S Dec 07 (342) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 50: M Dec 08 (343) T Dec 09 (344) W Dec 10 (345) T Dec 11 (346) F Dec 12 (347) S Dec 13 (348) DNS/DHCP maintenance at APL S Dec 14 (349) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 51: M Dec 15 (350) T Dec 16 (351) Behind: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 03:50 W Dec 17 (352) Ahead: Momentum dump, 13:00 UT T Dec 18 (353) F Dec 19 (354) S Dec 20 (355) S Dec 21 (356) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2009: ICAL-001: Jan 5-9, Jan 26-30, Mar 2-6, Apr 6-10, May 11-22 SECCHI Stepped calibration rolls Ahead: Mar 10, Jun 9, Sep 2, Nov 24 Behind: Mar 10, Jun 16, Sep 22, Dec 22 * Jan TBD Planned network outage at APL * Jan 15,22 JOP 80, EIT shutterless * Jan 23 Herschel sounding rocket launch * Feb DAWN - Mars fly-by * Apr 16,23 JOP 80, EIT shutterless * Apr Two week SUMER campaign (TBC) * May 18 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 360 kbps * Jun 1-Jul 5 Sunrise 5-day balloon flight http://star.mpae.gwdg.de/Sunrise/project/publicat/SPIE_2004.pdf * Jun 8 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 360 kbps * Jul 22 Total solar eclipse http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2009/TSE2009.html * Aug 4 Both: Increase track duration from 4 to 5 hours * Aug 10 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 240 kbps * Aug 31 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 240 kbps * Sep 10 Ahead at L4 Lagrange point * Sep 29 Messenger - Mercury fly-by * Oct 25 Behind at L5 Lagrange point * Nov 1-Dec 15 SUMER campaign (TBC) * Dec Behind: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps