STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2010-03-09 (Week 10) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * All subsystems on both spacecraft are nominal. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 9 * The station 55 transmitter was accidently disabled at 08:28 UT during the Ahead pass on day 63 (Mar 4). It was re-enabled at 08:47. This resulted in the loss of 19 minutes of commanding and tracking data, and several minutes of SSR data. * The station 25 transmitter went offline during the Ahead pass on station 25 on day 65 (Mar 6), and could not be brought back online, and was declared red. This resulted in the loss of 184 minutes of command and tracking data, and several minutes of SSR data. * The average daily SSR downlink was 6.0 gigabits for Ahead, and 5.3 gigabits for Behind. * The Behind track for Mar 3 was shortened due to the GOES launch. The launch was later delayed and the Behind track was returned to its original length. SECCHI was able to upload commands to return to a full schedule. * The uplink was late during the Behind pass on station 25 on day 60 (Mar 1). This resulted in the loss of 66 minutes of command and tracking data, and several minutes of SSR data. * Uplink was late again during the Behind pass on station 25 on day 65 (Mar 6) due to the transmitter being red. The transmitter was later re-established. This resulted in the loss of 70 minutes of command and tracking data, and several minutes of SSR data. Week 10 * The 28th momentum dump was successfully carried out on Ahead yesterday (Mar 8), with ignition at 15:30 UT. * There will be a 70 meter pass on station 43 for Behind on day 77 (Mar 18) will be carried out at 720 kbps. * Daily Savings Time in the U.S. starts on March 14. * Track times are being shifted around to assist the new GOES satellite. The Ahead track tomorrow (Mar 10) originally scheduled on station 54 starting at 5:30 UT is shifted to station 55 from 6:15-12:15 UT. The Ahead track on station 55 on day 70 (Mar 11) originally scheduled for 7-12:10 UT has been shifted to station 63 from 7:20-12:30 UT. SECCHI SSR pointers will be moved during the passes to mitigate any effects these changes might make. * There are a number of long durations between passes in the current schedule. For Behind these occur on days 76 (Mar 17), 83 (Mar 24), 90 (Mar 31), and 103 (Apr 13), and on Ahead between days 96-97 (Apr 6-7). There is a potential return-to-service track on station 34 which might alleviate the problem on Apr 13. * The attended track on Behind will be tomorrow (Mar 10), starting at 17:45 UT. Week 11 * The attended track on Ahead will be on Monday. * The 22nd momentum dump will be carried out on Behind on day 77 (Mar 18), with ignition starting at 21:30 UT. * There is a 4 hour track on Ahead on day 76 (Mar 17). Week 12 * There is a 4.6 hour track on Ahead on day 86 (Mar 27). * There is a 70 meter track on station 43 for Behind on day 84 (Mar 25) which will be carried out at 720 kbps. This will follow a long gap. Other * The SSC website has been overwhelmed recently by heavy traffic. Initially this was thought to be due to the recent release of the "3D Sun" iPhone application. However, upon investigation it was determined that the real cause was due to people looking for supposed UFOs in the STEREO images. (What they're really seeing are cosmic ray hits on the detector.) The problem was alleviated by moving some of the traffic to the STEREO outreach website. However, that website is now itself heavily loaded. This may affect the ability to browse images in February 2009. The ftp service is unaffected. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 10: M Mar 08 (067) Ahead: Momentum dump, 15:30 UT T Mar 09 (068) W Mar 10 (069) T Mar 11 (070) F Mar 12 (071) S Mar 13 (072) S Mar 14 (073) Daily Savings Time starts in U.S. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 11: M Mar 15 (074) T Mar 16 (075) W Mar 17 (076) T Mar 18 (077) Behind: Momentum dump, 21:30 UT Behind: 720 kbps downlink on station 43 F Mar 19 (078) S Mar 20 (079) S Mar 21 (080) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 12: M Mar 22 (081) T Mar 23 (082) W Mar 24 (083) T Mar 25 (084) Behind: 720 kbps downlink on station 43 F Mar 26 (085) S Mar 27 (086) S Mar 28 (087) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2010: ICAL-001: Mar 15-19, Apr 12-16, May 3-7 SECCHI Stepped calibration rolls Ahead: May 18, Aug 10, Nov 2 Behind: Apr 6, Jul 13, Oct 12 * Apr 8,15 EIT shutterless (TBC) * Apr 19 Ahead: Begin 7 hour daily DSN tracks * Apr 26 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 240 kbps * Jun 8 SUMI sounding rocket launch http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AGUSMSP51B..01A * 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 * Aug 23 Ahead: End use of 720 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Sep 6 Behind: End use of 720 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * 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 DAWN - Vesta arrival * Jul 13 Both: HGA calibration * Sep 19 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 96 kbps * Sep 26 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 96 kbps 2012: * Jan 9 Behind: End use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Jan 11 Both: HGA calibration * Jun 25 Ahead: End use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Jul DAWN - Vesta departure * Jul 11 Both: HGA calibration * Aug 20 Both: Switch downlink rate to 30 kbps * Nov 13 Total solar eclipse, south Pacific 2013: * Nov 25 Behind: End use of 360 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Dec 12 Ahead: Mercury transit 2014: * Apr 29 Behind: Mercury transit 2015: * Feb DAWN - Ceres arrival * Jan 10 - Apr 12 Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Feb 17 - Aug 2 Ahead: Spacecraft behind Sun * May 25 Ahead: End use of 360 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Aug 10 Ahead: Begin use of 360 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Jul 23 - Nov 10 Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Jul DAWN - End of nominal mission 2016: 2017: 2018: * Mar 5 Ahead: Mercury transit