STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2012-09-11 (Week 37) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * All subsystems on both spacecraft are nominal. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 36 (Sep 3-9) * On day 247 (Sep 3), during the DSS-25 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 0006z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of one frame of SSR data. See DR# N108360 for more information. * On day 247 (Sep 3), during the DSS-63 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 0546z through 0837z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 42 frames of SSR data. See DR# N108365 for more information. * On day 247 (Sep 3), during the DSS-65 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 1145z through 1707z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 654 frames of SSR data. See DR# M106898 for more information. * On day 247 (Sep 3), the SECCHI Behind instrument reset at 13:00:39z. The SECCHI team reconfigured the instrument to operational mode at 1516z. This was the 17th reset of SECCHI on the Behind spacecraft. * On day 248 (Sep 4), during the DSS-65 support for Behind, initial telemetry lock was established late at 1527z due to the station being declared red before the start of the track. SSR pointers were repositioned to minimize data loss. Later in the support, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 1817z through 1845z. These anomalies resulted in the loss of 100 frames of SSR data and 27 minutes of real-time telemetry, commanding and tracking data. See DR# M106899 for more information. * On day 248 (Sep 4), during the DSS-34 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 2108z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of one frame of SSR data. See DR# N108366 for more information. * On day 248 (Sep 4), the 22nd SECCHI stepped calibration on Behind, for the midpoint in the orbit, was executed. * On day 250 (Sep 6), during the DSS-24 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 0006z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of one frame of SSR data. See DR# N108371 for more information. * On day 250 (Sep 6), during the DSS-55 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 0556z and again at 0614z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of five frames of SSR data. See DR# N108386 for more information. * On day 250 (Sep 6), during the DSS-25 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1542z and again at 1706z. Later in the support, the monitor data was lost at 1635z due to a monitor data server anomaly. The server was rebooted and monitor data was received again at 1642z. These anomalies resulted in the loss of seven minutes of monitor data and two frames of SSR data. See DRs# N108374 and N108385 for more information. * On day 250 (Sep 6), during the DSS-55 support for Behind, monitor data was lost at 1635z due to a monitor data server anomaly. The server was rebooted and monitor data was received again at 1642z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of seven minutes of monitor data. All SSR data was received. See DR# N108381 for more information. * On day 251 (Sep 7), during the DSS-14 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1218z. SSR pointers were repositioned to minimize data loss. All SSR data was recovered. See DR# N108389 for more information. * On day 251 (Sep 7), during the DSS-63 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 1545z through 1714z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 192 frames of SSR data. See DR# N108390 for more information. * On day 252 (Sep 8), during the DSS-55 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 0638z through 0708z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of seven frames of SSR data. See DR# N108394 for more information. * On day 252 (Sep 8), during the DSS-63 support for Behind, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1240z and again at 1311z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 80 frames of SSR data. See DR# N108397 for more information. * On day 253 (Sep 9), during the DSS-63 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently beginning at 0546z through 0934z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 103 frames of SSR data. See DR# N108395 for more information. * The average daily SSR playback volume during the week was 4.7 gigabits for Ahead, and 4.5 gigabits for Behind. Week 37 (Sep 10-16) * Ahead has 70 meter passes on Monday, Sep 10 (D63), Tuesday, Sep 11 (D63), Wednesday, Sep 12 (D14), Saturday, Sep 15 (D14), and Sunday, Sep 16 (D63). There are 10 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. * Behind has 70 meters every day on D63 between Tuesday through Sunday, Sep 11-16. There are 9 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Tuesday, Sep 11. Week 38 (Sep 17-23) * The 23rd SECCHI stepped calibration roll on Ahead will be carried out on Tuesday, Sep 18, starting at 08:40 UT. System momentum will be about 4 N-m-s. This is the aphelion roll--aphelion is actually the following week. * The Hubble space telescope will be making special observations of the planet Jupiter on Sep 20 to observe the dimming caused by a transit of Venus across the face of the Sun as seen from Jupiter. These observations will test the ability to extract information about Venus's atmosphere by observing the dimming in multiple bandpasses, and will serve to test how this procedure can be used to explore the atmospheres of exoplanets. Simultaneous observations of the Sun from SDO and STEREO Ahead are desired to monitor possible solar activity which could affect the measurements. * Ahead has 70 meter passes every day of the week, with two on Monday, Sep 17, two on Tuesday, Sep 18, and two on Sunday, Sep 23. There are 14 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. * Behind has 70 meter passes on Monday, Sep 17 (D63), Wednesday, Sep 19 (D14), Thursday, Sep 20 (D14), and Friday, Sep 21 (D63). There are 12 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. The station 45 passes on Wednesday, Sep 19, and Friday, Sep 21, will be carried out at 240 kbps. ESA New Norcia passes are scheduled for Tuesday, Sep 18, and Sunday, Sep 23. Week 39 (Sep 24-30) * Ahead reaches aphelion on Sep 26. * Sep 30 marks the end of the 2nd extended mission for STEREO. * Momentum dumps are scheduled for both spacecraft during the week, with the 50th dump on Ahead scheduled for Sep 24 at 16:00 UT, and the 45th dump on Behind scheduled for Sep 25 at 15:00 UT. These dumps were scheduled a week early due to track coverage. * The second battery discharge cycling on Ahead is scheduled for the morning of Sep 26, starting at 14:00 UT. This will be for 2 hours during a station 14 track. * Project Interface Tests (PIT) will be carried out with the Ahead spacecraft on Thursday, Sep 27 for 1.8 hours using station 24, and Sunday, Sep 30 for 3.2 hours using station 26. Realtime data will be flowing during these tests, but there will be no instrument commanding or SSR playback. * Ahead has 70 meter passes every day except Thursday, Sep 27, with two passes on Tuesday, Sep 25, and Sunday, Sep 30. The first 70 meter pass on each of those two days, using station 63, will be at 720 kbps. There are 11 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. * Behind has 70 meter passes on Monday, Sep 24 (D14), Tuesday, Sep 25 (D63 at 720 kbps), Thursday, Sep 27 (D14, D63), and Friday, Sep 28 (D14). There are 9 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Friday, Sep 28. Week 40 (Oct 1-7) * Testing of the turbo encoding mode for the space weather beacon data will be carried out with Ahead on Wednesday, Oct 3, starting at 10:05 UT after the station 63 pass, and with Behind on Thursday, Oct 4, starting at 11:50 UT after the ESA New Norcia pass. * Ahead has 70 meter passes on Monday, Oct 1 (D14), Wednesday, Oct 3 (D63), Saturday, Oct 6 (D63), and Sunday, Oct 7 (D63). There are 11 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. * Behind has 70 meter passes on Monday, Oct 1 (D14 at 720 kbps), Friday, Oct 5 (D43, D14), and Saturday, Oct 6 (D14 at 720 kbps). There are 9 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Thursday, Oct 4. Week 41 (Oct 8-14) * Ahead has 70 meter passes on Monday, Oct 8 (D14), Tuesday, Oct 9 (D14), Wednesday, Oct 10 (D14), Friday, Oct 12 (D14), Saturday, Oct 13 (D63 and D43), and Sunday, Oct 14 (D63). There are 11 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. * Behind has 70 meter passes on Tuesday, Oct 9 (D14), Thursday, Oct 11 (D43 stepped to 720), Friday, Oct 12 (D43), Sunday, Oct 14 (D63, D43). The D34 pass on Friday Oct 12 will be stepped to 240 kps. There are 9 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. Week 42 (Oct 15-21) * Ahead has 70 meter passes on Monday, Oct 15 (D14), Wednesday, Oct 17 (D63), Saturday Oct 20 (D63, D14), and Sunday, Oct 21 (D63) There are 14 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. * Behind has 70 m passes on Monday, Oct 15 (D43, D14), Tuesday Oct 16 (D14), Wednesday, Oct 17 (D63), Thursday, Oct 18 (D14), Saturday, Oct 20 (D14) and Sunday, Oct 21 (D63). There are 7 passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 37: M Sep 10 (254) T Sep 11 (255) W Sep 12 (256) T Sep 13 (257) F Sep 14 (258) S Sep 15 (259) S Sep 16 (260) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 38: M Sep 17 (261) T Sep 18 (262) Ahead: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 08:40 UT W Sep 19 (263) T Sep 20 (264) Ahead: Venus transit as seen from Jupiter F Sep 21 (265) S Sep 22 (266) S Sep 23 (267) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 39: M Sep 24 (268) Ahead: Momentum dump, 16:00 UT T Sep 25 (269) Behind: Momentum dump, 15:00 UT W Sep 26 (270) T Sep 27 (271) F Sep 28 (272) S Sep 29 (273) S Sep 30 (274) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 40: M Oct 01 (275) T Oct 02 (276) W Oct 03 (277) Ahead: Turbo beacon test, 10:05-04:55 next day T Oct 04 (278) Behind: Turbo beacon test, 11:50-17:40 F Oct 05 (279) S Oct 06 (280) S Oct 07 (281) Notes: * Tests of Turbo decoding of beacon data from European stations on both spacecraft. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 41: M Oct 08 (282) T Oct 09 (283) W Oct 10 (284) T Oct 11 (285) F Oct 12 (286) S Oct 13 (287) S Oct 14 (288) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 42: M Oct 15 (289) T Oct 16 (290) W Oct 17 (291) T Oct 18 (292) F Oct 19 (293) S Oct 20 (294) S Oct 21 (295) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2012: * Nov 4 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps * Nov 13 Total solar eclipse, south Pacific 2013: * May 3 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps * Dec 12 Ahead: Mercury transit 2014: * Jan 20 Behind: End use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Apr 21 Behind: Resume use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Apr 29 Behind: Mercury transit * Oct 15 Behind: End use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet 2015: * Feb DAWN - Ceres arrival * Jan 20 - Mar 28 (TBC) Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Mar 17 - Jul 14 (TBC) Ahead: Spacecraft behind Sun * Jul 2 Behind: Resume use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Aug 25 - Oct 19 (TBC) Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Sep 25 Behind: End use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet * Jul DAWN - End of nominal mission 2016: * Apr 3 Behind: Resume use of 480 kbps on 70 m DSN subnet 2017: * Jul 11 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps * Jul 22 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps 2018: * Mar 5 Ahead: Mercury transit