STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2021-12-21 (Week 51) 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 50 (Dec 13-19) * On day 350 (Dec 16), the PLASTIC POC tested their command interface and sent commands successfully to the MOC. All instrument POCs (IMPACT, PLASTIC, SECCHI, & SWAVES) have tested successfully with the MOC's new server cho (STEREO Data Server and Instrument command interface). * On day 350 (Dec 16), during the DSS-63 support for Ahead, monitor data went stale at 1758z through EOT, when all active receivers went uninitialized at the Madrid complex. This anomaly had no operational impact. See DR# M114104 for more information. * On day 352 (Dec 18), during the DSS-35 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently between 0804z and 0814z, due to bad weather. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 42536 frames of SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the subsequent DSS-63 support and recovered all the affected data. See DR #C116153 for more information. * As of day 353 (Dec 19), 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 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. A slight adjustment was made to the schedule to accommodate JWST launch contingencies, changing some station 14 passes to station 25. An ESA Malargue pass is scheduled for Monday, Dec 20. * Maintenance will be performed on the NASA IONet this afternoon (Dec 21), between 17-19 UT. * APL will be closed for the Christmas holiday on Friday, Dec 24. Week 52 (Dec 27-Jan 2) * Ahead has ten passes during the week, and overall coverage in nominal. There are nine passes at 720 kbps, and one at 480 kbps. A slight adjustment was made to the schedule to accommodate JWST launch contingencies, changing a station 14 pass to station 25. * 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. An ESA New Norcia pass is scheduled for Thursday, Jan 6. * A momentum dump will be performed on Ahead on Tuesday, Jan 4, with ignition at 19:45 UT. Week 02 (Jan 10-16) * Ahead has ten passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are five passes at 720 kbps, and five at 480 kbps. Week 03 (Jan 17-23) * Ahead has twelve passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, and four at 480 kbps. ESA station passes are scheduled for Monday, Jan 17 (Cebreros), Wednesday, Jan 19 (Malargue), and Friday, Jan 21 (New Norcia). Week 04 (Jan 24-30) * Ahead has thirteen passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, and five at 480 kbps. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 02: M Jan 10 (010) T Jan 11 (011) W Jan 12 (012) T Jan 13 (013) F Jan 14 (014) S Jan 15 (015) S Jan 16 (016) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 03: M Jan 17 (017) T Jan 18 (018) W Jan 19 (019) T Jan 20 (020) F Jan 21 (021) S Jan 22 (022) S Jan 23 (023) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 04: M Jan 24 (024) T Jan 25 (025) W Jan 26 (026) T Jan 27 (027) F Jan 28 (028) S Jan 29 (029) S Jan 30 (030) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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