STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2019-12-17 (Week 51) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * The regularly scheduled weekly telecons on Dec 24 and Dec 31 are cancelled due to the holidays. * Restoration of the IMPACT server at UCLA is awaiting completion of the hiring of a programmer. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally. PLASTIC is in the process of returning to nominal operations after suffering a voltage anomaly on Dec 5. PLASTIC was turned off on Dec 9, and powered back on Dec 11 as part of the process of resolving the anomaly. * Four years after the initial loss of communications anomaly with the Behind observatory, NASA has directed to cease periodic recovery operations with the last support on October 17, 2018. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 50 (Dec 9-15) * On day 344 (Dec 10), during the DSS-14 support for Ahead, monitor data stopped updating between 0111z and 0130z due to a link connection problem. This anomaly had no operational impact. See DR#G120721 for more information. * On day 347 (Dec 13), during the DSS-14 support for Ahead, the station lost link connection and monitor data stopped updating, resulting in the downlink receiver not locking at BOT. This anomaly resulted in loss of real-time telemetry between 0115z and 0120z, including the loss of three minutes of SSR data. See DR #G120738 and #G120740 for more information. * On day 347 (Dec 13), during the DSS-63 support, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1924z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 958 frames of SSR data. See DR #M111916 for more information. * JPL is investigating the problems that have been occuring recently at Goldstone with the automatic link builder. * On day 343 (Dec 9), the PLASTIC instrument was Powered Off at 1814z to correct the high voltage shut-off anomaly, which began at 339-1911z (Dec 5). The PLASTIC team decided to remain powered off until after the momentum dump on day 344 (Dec 10). * On day 344 (Dec 10), the 124th momentum dump on Ahead was executed successfully at 1840z, which imparted an estimated delta V of 0.079 m/sec. This was the 43rd momentum dump that did not use the IMU. After thruster operations completed, there was a 0.27 degree of roll angle error. Fine pointing stabilized 2.5 minutes after completion of the momentum dump. * On day 345 (Dec 11), the PLASTIC instrument was Powered On at 1808z and the high voltage was stepped to 5kV. The PLASTIC team continues to monitor and ramp up the high voltages. * The PLASTIC team was unable to attend the telecon because they were actively commanding the instrument at the time. They saw some enhanced current in one of their voltage increases, and are now increasing the voltage more slowly. After that change, the process seems to be going nominally. This process usually takes 4-5 days. Normal operations may resume by the end of the week. * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 6.0 Gbits during this week. Week 51 (Dec 16-22) * Ahead has fifteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are twelve passes at 720 kbps, two at 360 kbps, and one at 160 kbps. Week 52 (Dec 23-29) * Ahead has twelve passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are ten passes at 720 kbps, one at 480 kbps, and one at 360 kbps. * APL will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec 24-25, for the Christmas holiday. * There will be no STEREO operations telecon during the week because of the Christmas holiday. Week 01 (Dec 30-Jan 5) * Ahead has fourteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eleven passes at 720 kbps, two at 360 kbps, and one at 160 kbps. * APL will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec 31-Jan 1, for the New Year holiday. * There will be no STEREO operations telecon during the week because of the New Year holiday. Week 02 (Jan 6-12) * Ahead has fourteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, five at 360 kbps, and one at 160 kbps. Week 03 (Jan 13-19) * Ahead has fifteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, one at 480 kbps, four at 360 kbps, and two at 160 kbps. * The 51st SECCHI stepped calibration roll on Ahead is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan 14, starting at 13:00 UT. * The 125th momentum dump on Ahead is scheduled for Thursday, Jan 16, with ignition at 19:30 UT. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 50: M Dec 09 (343) Ahead: PLASTIC powered off T Dec 10 (344) Ahead: Momentum dump, 18:40 UT W Dec 11 (345) Ahead: PLASTIC powered on T Dec 12 (346) F Dec 13 (347) S Dec 14 (348) S Dec 15 (349) Notes: * PLASTIC in the process of being recovered to normal operations after power cycling. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 51: M Dec 16 (350) T Dec 17 (351) W Dec 18 (352) T Dec 19 (353) F Dec 20 (354) S Dec 21 (355) S Dec 22 (356) Notes: * PLASTIC in the process of being recovered to normal operations after power cycling. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 52: M Dec 23 (357) T Dec 24 (358) W Dec 25 (359) Christmas T Dec 26 (360) Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby F Dec 27 (361) S Dec 28 (362) S Dec 29 (363) Notes: * APL closed Dec 24-25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 01: M Dec 30 (364) T Dec 31 (365) W Jan 01 (001) New Year T Jan 02 (002) F Jan 03 (003) S Jan 04 (004) S Jan 05 (005) Notes: * APL closed Dec 31-Jan 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 02: M Jan 06 (006) T Jan 07 (007) W Jan 08 (008) T Jan 09 (009) F Jan 10 (010) S Jan 11 (011) S Jan 12 (012) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 03: M Jan 13 (013) T Jan 14 (014) Ahead: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 13:00 W Jan 15 (015) T Jan 16 (016) Ahead: Momentum dump, 19:30 UT F Jan 17 (017) S Jan 18 (018) S Jan 19 (019) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 04: M Jan 20 (020) T Jan 21 (021) W Jan 22 (022) T Jan 23 (023) F Jan 24 (024) S Jan 25 (025) S Jan 26 (026) Notes: * COR2 deep field campaign, Jan 21-23 (TBC) * Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass, Jan 24-Feb 4. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2020: * Apr 27-May 3 Solar Orbiter along Sun-Earth line (TBC after launch) * May Behind: Switch downlink rate to 360 kbps for 34 meter * Jun Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 360 kbps for 34 meter * Jun Behind: Switch downlink rate to 480 kbps for 34 meter * Jun 2-13 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jul 11 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby, in HI2-A field-of-view * Sep Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 480 kbps for 34 meter * Sep 22-Oct 2 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2021: * Jan 13-23 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Feb 20 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Apr 25-May 4 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jul Behind: Switch downlink rate to 720 kbps for 34 meter * Aug Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 720 kbps for 34 meter * Aug 5-15 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Oct 16 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Nov 17-26 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2022: * Feb 21-Mar 2 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * May 28-Jun 7 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 2-11 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Dec 7-16 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2023: * Mar 13-23 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * May 5 Behind: Mercury transit * Jun 17-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jul 17 Behind: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 13 Ahead: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 21 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Sep 23-Oct 3 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Dec 25-Jan 3 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2024: * Mar 26-Apr 4 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jun 26-Jul 5 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 26-Oct 5 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Nov 6 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby, in HI2-A field-of-view * Dec 20-29 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2025: * Mar 19-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Apr 7 Ahead: Mercury transit * Jun 15-24 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2026: 2027: * Feb 1 Behind: Mercury transit 2028: 2029: * Jun 30 Ahead: Mercury transit