STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2022-01-18 (Week 03) 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 02 (Jan 10-16) * On day 014 (Jan 14), during the DSS-56 support for Ahead, uplink activities were delayed five minutes until 1620z, due to a maintenance related interface failure. This anomaly resulted in the loss 0.2 hours of real-time commanding, 2-way tracking, and 333 frames SSR data during the transition to 2-way downlink mode. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the track and recovered all the affected data. See DR # M114187 for more information. * On day 016 (Jan 16), during the DSS-25 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 0538z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of twelve frames of SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the subsequent DSS-63 track and recovered all the affected data. * As of day 016 (Jan 16), all PLASTIC systems 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 6.2 Gbits during this week. Week 03 (Jan 17-23) * 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. The schedule for the week was adjusted to take the needs of the JWST mission into account. 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. * A PIT test will be carried out on the new station 53 in Madrid on Tuesday, Jan 25. There will be no instrument commanding or SSR playback during this pass. * Maintenance will be performed on the APL DMZ to upgrade switches on Friday, Jan 18, between 21:00 UT to 05:00 UT the next day (4-11 PM EST). The pass occurs during the last hour of a 63 pass, so external connection to the realtime telemetry may be interrupted. The MOC will be staffed to monitor the pass, and missing data will be pulled from the DSN after the pass is over. Week 05 (Jan 31-Feb 6) * Ahead has twelve passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are six passes at 720 kbps, and six at 480 kbps. Week 06 (Feb 7-13) * Ahead has eleven tracks during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are nine tracks at 720 kbps, and two at 480 kbps. * The 144th momentum dump is scheduled for Thursday, Feb 10, with ignition at 20:30 UT. Week 07 (Feb 14-20) * Ahead has twelve passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are six passes at 720 kbps, and six at 480 kbps. The pass schedule was adjusted for DSN maintenance on Wednesday. * The annual spacecraft assessment review is scheduled for Thursday, Feb 18, between 8:30-12:00 EST. This will be a virtual meeting. Week 08 (Feb 21-27) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are six passes at 720 kbps, and five at 480 kbps. * The Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass period runs from Feb 21-Mar 2 (days 52-61). * Coordinated observations between Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter will be made on Feb 22 and Feb 26, to take advantage of quadrature between the two spacecraft. Other: * A question was raised about how JWST is affecting STEREO scheduling. Accommodations needed to be made in weeks 2 and 3, but has not affected the schedule since then. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 03: M Jan 17 (017) Martin Luther King Day 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) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 05: M Jan 31 (031) T Feb 01 (032) W Feb 02 (033) T Feb 03 (034) F Feb 04 (035) S Feb 05 (036) S Feb 06 (037) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 06: M Feb 07 (038) T Feb 08 (039) W Feb 09 (040) T Feb 10 (041) Ahead: Momentum dump, 20:30 UT F Feb 11 (042) S Feb 12 (043) S Feb 13 (044) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 07: M Feb 14 (045) T Feb 15 (046) W Feb 16 (047) T Feb 17 (048) F Feb 18 (049) S Feb 19 (050) S Feb 20 (051) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 08: M Feb 21 (052) Start of Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass T Feb 22 (053) PSP/Solar Orbiter quadrature observations W Feb 23 (054) T Feb 24 (055) F Feb 25 (056) S Feb 26 (057) PSP/Solar Orbiter quadrature observations S Feb 27 (058) Notes: * Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass, Feb 21-Mar 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2022: * Feb 21-Mar 2 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * 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