STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2010-01-05 (Week 01) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * The station 15 status is currently red. See below for details. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * All subsystems on both spacecraft are nominal. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 53 * Turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently between 8:47 and 11:48 UT during the Ahead pass on station 55 on day 363 (Dec 29). This resulted in the loss of several minutes of SSR data for all instruments. Behind suffered the same problem using station 55 on Jan 1, between 13:45-18:53, again resulting in the loss of several minutes of SSR data. There were a total of seven tracks on station 55 between the two spacecraft over the week, but only two of them had problems. DSN applied a fix on day 362 (Dec 28) which appears to be helping. * Telemetry lock was intermittent during the station 54 pass on Behind on day 365 (Dec 31). This resulted in the loss of about 1 hour of SSR data for all instruments. * The average daily downlink was 5.8 gigabits for Ahead and 5.7 gigabits for Behind. A 720 kbps track using the 70 meter station 63 on Dec 29 helped boost the Behind data volume. Week 1 * HGA calibrations will be carried out on both spacecraft tomorrow (Jan 6). The start times will be Ahead: 14:00, Behind: 16:00 UT. * The 12th SECCHI stepped calibration roll was carried out on Behind this morning (Jan 5), starting at 12:15 UT. This is the midpoint roll. * The station 15 status is currently red. Behind is scheduled to use this station tonight (Jan 5). The HGA track tomorrow is nine hours long, which can be used to empty the recorder. Also, it may be possible to substitute station 26 for at least part of tonight's pass. * The PIT test scheduled for Jan 7 has been cancelled, due to the problems with station 15. However, the track is still in the schedule. No downlink was originally scheduled for this track, but it may be used for downlink in case of emergency, and if the station is not still red. Week 2 * No significant activities planned. Week 3 * The 27th momentum dump will be carried out on Ahead on Jan 19, starting at 16:00 UT. Week 4 * A four hour track on Behind is scheduled using station 43 on Jan 28. This is a 70 meter station, and the track will be carried out at 720 kbps. Week 5 * The 21st momentum dump will be carried out on Behind on Feb 3, starting at 18:00 UT. Other * A spectacular sungrazing comet was seen by STEREO and SOHO on Jan 2-3. This comet was originally discovered in STEREO images. * FDF has been studying the STEREO orbits for the period when STEREO will be close to Earth again, to assist the DSN in their planning. The solar-lunar-planetary files didn't extend well into this period, and they are working on improving it. FDF is still using DE405 for the ephemeris, instead of the newer DE421. * The STEREO public outreach site (stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov) is currently down, but the SSC site (stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov) is still up. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 01: M Jan 04 (004) T Jan 05 (005) Behind: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 12:15 W Jan 06 (006) HGA calibration, Ahead 14:00 UT, Behind 16:00 UT T Jan 07 (007) EIT shutterless (TBC) F Jan 08 (008) S Jan 09 (009) S Jan 10 (010) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 02: M Jan 11 (011) T Jan 12 (012) W Jan 13 (013) T Jan 14 (014) F Jan 15 (015) EIT shutterless (TBC) S Jan 16 (016) S Jan 17 (017) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 03: M Jan 18 (018) T Jan 19 (019) Ahead: Momentum dump, 16:00 UT W Jan 20 (020) T Jan 21 (021) F Jan 22 (022) S Jan 23 (023) S Jan 24 (024) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 04: M Jan 25 (025) T Jan 26 (026) W Jan 27 (027) T Jan 28 (028) Behind: 720 kbps downlink on station 43. F Jan 29 (029) S Jan 30 (030) S Jan 31 (031) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 05: M Feb 01 (032) T Feb 02 (033) W Feb 03 (034) Behind: Momentum dump, 18:00 UT T Feb 04 (035) F Feb 05 (036) S Feb 06 (037) S Feb 07 (038) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2010: ICAL-001: Jan 11-15, Feb 15-19, Mar 15-19, Apr 12-16, May 3-7 SECCHI Stepped calibration rolls Ahead: Feb 23, May 18, Aug 10, Nov 2 Behind: Apr 6, Jul 13, Oct 12 * Spring (TBD) SUMI sounding rocket launch http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AGUSMSP51B..01A * Apr 8,15 EIT shutterless (TBC) * Apr 19 Ahead: Begin 7 hour daily DSN tracks * Apr 26 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 240 kbps * Jul 8,15 EIT shutterless (TBC) * Jul 11 Total solar eclipse http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2010/TSE2010.html * Jul 14 Both: HGA calibration * Sep 7 Both: Begin 8 hour daily DSN tracks * Sep 13 Both: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps * Nov 15 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps 2011: * Jan 12 Both: HGA calibration * Feb 6 STEREO spacecraft at 180 degree separation * Mar 18 Messenger - Mercury orbital insertion * Apr 11 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps * Jul 13 Both: HGA calibration * Aug DAWN - Vesta arrival * Sep 19 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 96 kbps * Sep 26 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 96 kbps 2012: * Jan 11 Both: HGA calibration * May DAWN - Vesta departure * Jul 11 Both: HGA calibration * Aug Both: Switch downlink rate to 30 kbps * Nov 13 Total solar eclipse, south Pacific 2013: * Dec 12 Ahead: Possible Mercury transit (TBC) 2014: * Apr 29 Behind: Possible Mercury transit (TBC) 2015: * Feb DAWN - Ceres arrival * Jan 10 - Apr 12 Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Feb 17 - Aug 2 Ahead: Spacecraft behind Sun * Jul 23 - Nov 10 Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Jul DAWN - End of nominal mission