STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2020-06-02 (Week 23) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally. PLASTIC is back to operational mode, but with a higher background rate. More time is needed to understand the new calibraton. * 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 22 (May 25-31) * On day 146 (May 25), during the DSS-63 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1013z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of nine frames of SSR data. * As of day 152 (May 31), all PLASTIC systems on Ahead are behaving well, except there is a high background count rate, which the team is continuing to monitor. * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 7.0 Gbits during this week. Week 23 (Jun 1-7) * Ahead has thirteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are seven passes at 720 kbps, one at 480 kbps, and five at 360 kbps. The schedule was reorganized because of station 63 maintenance activities. The schedule includes an ESA Cebreros pass on Thursday. * The fifth Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass period is scheduled for days 154-164 (Jun 2-13). SECCHI will be supporting this pass, with special EUVI and COR2 observations on Jun 4,5, another period of special COR2 observations Jun 8-11, and with the regular synoptic program. Week 24 (Jun 8-14) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, one at 480 kbps, and two at 360 kbps. * The fifth Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass period is scheduled for days 154-164 (Jun 2-13). SECCHI will be supporting this pass, with special EUVI and COR2 observations on Jun 4,5, another period of special COR2 observations Jun 8-11, and with the regular synoptic program. Week 25 (Jun 15-21) * Ahead has twelve passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, three at 480 kbps, and one at 360 kbps. Week 26 (Jun 22-28) * Ahead has ten passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are seven passes at 720 kbps, and three at 480 kbps. Week 27 (Jun 29-Jul 5) * Ahead has ten passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are seven passes at 720 kbps, one at 480 kbps, and two at 360 kbps. * The 129th momentum dump on Ahead is scheduled for Monday, Jun 29, with ignition at 15:00. * Friday, Jul 3, is a holiday at APL, for Independence Day. Week 28 (Jul 6-12) * Ahead has ten passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are seven passes at 720 kbps, two at 480 kbps, and one at 360 kbps. Other * The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has asked whether STEREO can observe the star Betelgeuse during the upcoming months, when it is too close to the Sun to be observed from Earth. It's been calculated that Betelgeuse can be observed by the HI2-A telescope between June 2 and August 5 if the STEREO-A spacecraft is rotated by 180 degrees. Since SECCHI plans in 2 hour blocks, the idea would be to roll the spacecraft at the beginning of a block, wait for the pointing to stabilze, take images, and then roll back near the end of the block in time to stabilize before the next 2 hour block in the normal schedule. Betelgeuse is very bright, so much shorter exposure times than normal would be needed. The SECCHI team is currently looking into this. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 23: M Jun 01 (153) T Jun 02 (154) W Jun 03 (155) T Jun 04 (156) Ahead: EUVI deep exposure, COR2 pB campaign F Jun 05 (157) Ahead: EUVI deep exposure, COR2 pB campaign S Jun 06 (158) S Jun 07 (159) Notes: * Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass, Jun 2-13. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 24: M Jun 08 (160) Ahead: COR2 deep exposure campaign T Jun 09 (161) Ahead: COR2 deep exposure campaign W Jun 10 (162) Ahead: COR2 deep exposure campaign T Jun 11 (163) Ahead: COR2 deep exposure campaign F Jun 12 (164) S Jun 13 (165) S Jun 14 (166) Notes: * Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass, Jun 2-13. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 25: M Jun 15 (167) T Jun 16 (168) W Jun 17 (169) T Jun 18 (170) F Jun 19 (171) S Jun 20 (172) S Jun 21 (173) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 26: M Jun 22 (174) T Jun 23 (175) W Jun 24 (176) T Jun 25 (177) F Jun 26 (178) S Jun 27 (179) S Jun 28 (180) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 27: M Jun 29 (181) Ahead: Momentum dump, 15:00 UT T Jun 30 (182) W Jul 01 (183) T Jul 02 (184) F Jul 03 (185) Independence Day holiday S Jul 04 (186) Independence Day S Jul 05 (187) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 28: M Jul 06 (188) T Jul 07 (189) W Jul 08 (190) T Jul 09 (191) F Jul 10 (192) S Jul 11 (193) S Jul 12 (194) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2020: * Jul 11 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby, in HI2-A field-of-view * 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 * 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