STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2021-11-30 (Week 48) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally. PLASTIC is in operational mode, but with a high background rate. * 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 47 (Nov 22-28) * On day 327 (Nov 23), during the DSS-55 support for Ahead, the transmitter was declared red due to a hardware problem. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 4.3 hours of real-time commanding and 2-way tracking data. See DR# M114021 for more information. * On day 328 (Nov 24), during the DSS-34 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently between 1017z and 1220z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 28 frames of SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the track and recovered all the affected data, except for the loss of one minute of SECCHI data at 328-1215z. * On day 327 (Nov 23), the 142nd momentum dump was executed successfully at 1830z, which imparted an estimated delta V of 0.060 m/sec. This was the 61st momentum dump conducted without gyro use. After thruster operations completed, there was a 0.48 degree of roll angle error. Fine pointing stabilized 2.9 minutes after completion of the momentum dump. * On day 328 (Nov 24), the SECCHI instrument on Ahead reset at 05:48:42z. The SECCHI team reconfigured the instrument to operational mode by 1043z. This was the 68th reset of the SECCHI instrument on the Ahead observatory. * As of day 332 (Nov 28), 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 6.1 Gbits during this week. * A question was raised about the recent problems with turbo decoder lock on station 34. DSN is looking into this. Station 34 is showing higher system noise. Maintenance to address this problem would likely require taking the station down for a day. Week 48 (Nov 29-Dec 5) * Ahead has thirteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are six passes at 720 kbps, and seven at 480 kbps. This week's schedule was also adjusted to accommodate DART launch contingencies. An ESA Malargue pass was added on Tuesday, Nov 30. * A solar eclipse will be visible from Antartica on Saturday, Dec 4. Week 49 (Dec 6-12) * Ahead has thirteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are ten passes at 720 kbps, and three at 480 kbps. * The 60th SECCHI calibration roll maneuver is scheduled for Friday, Dec 10, starting at 13:45 UT. This is the midpoint roll. Week 50 (Dec 13-19) * Ahead has thirteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are 12 passes at 720 kbps, and one at 480 kbps. Week 51 (Dec 20-26) * Ahead has twelve passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are nine passes at 720 kbps, two at 480 kbps, and one at 360 kbsp. An ESA Malargue pass is scheduled for Monday, Dec 20. * APL will be closed for the Christmas holiday on Friday, Dec 24. Week 52 (Dec 27-Jan 2) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage in nominal. There are ten passes at 720 kbps, and one at 480 kbps. * APL will be closed for the New Years holiday on Friday, Dec 31. Week 01 (Jan 3-9) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are six passes at 720 kbps, and five at 480 kbps. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 48: M Nov 29 (333) T Nov 30 (334) W Dec 01 (335) T Dec 02 (336) F Dec 03 (337) S Dec 04 (338) Solar eclipse in Antartica S Dec 05 (339) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 49: M Dec 06 (340) T Dec 07 (341) W Dec 08 (342) T Dec 09 (343) F Dec 10 (344) Ahead: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 13:45 S Dec 11 (345) S Dec 12 (346) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 50: M Dec 13 (347) T Dec 14 (348) W Dec 15 (349) T Dec 16 (350) F Dec 17 (351) S Dec 18 (352) S Dec 19 (353) Notes: * Solar Orbiter METIS observations of Comet Leonard, Dec 17-21 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 51: M Dec 20 (354) T Dec 21 (355) W Dec 22 (356) T Dec 23 (357) F Dec 24 (358) Christmas holiday S Dec 25 (359) Christmas S Dec 26 (360) Notes: * Solar Orbiter METIS observations of Comet Leonard, Dec 17-21 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 52: M Dec 27 (361) T Dec 28 (362) W Dec 29 (363) T Dec 30 (364) F Dec 31 (365) New Year holiday S Jan 01 (001) New Year S Jan 02 (002) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 01: M Jan 03 (003) T Jan 04 (004) Ahead: Momentum dump, 19:45 W Jan 05 (005) T Jan 06 (006) F Jan 07 (007) S Jan 08 (008) S Jan 09 (009) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2022: * Feb 21-Mar 2 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Feb 22, 26 PSP/Solar Orbiter quadrature observations * Apr 27-30 Comet PANSTARRS in COR2-A field-of-view * May 28-Jun 7 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 2-11 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 4 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * 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: * Feb 18 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * Mar 19-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Apr 7 Ahead: Mercury transit * Jun 15-24 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2026: * Dec 24 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby 2027: * Feb 1 Behind: Mercury transit 2028: * Mar 18 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby 2029: * Jun 10 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * Jun 30 Ahead: Mercury transit 2030: * Sep 3 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby