STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2023-01-03 (Week 1) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * The next STEREO Annual Assessment is planned for Thursday, Feb 16, 2023, from 8:30-12:00 EST. A meeting announcement will be sent out soon. The instrument teams are invited to present their instrument status. Because APL is retiring Webex, the meeting will be done via Conference Manager, which is browser-based. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally. PLASTIC is in operational mode, but with a moderately higher than normal 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 51 (Dec 19-25) * On day 358 (Dec 24), DSS-35 conducted a successful Project Interface Test with Ahead. The purpose was to validate tracking and telemetry data delivery for a new version of the Data Capture & Delivery (DCD) software (v9.1). The MOC successfully received monitor data, real-time telemetry, and sent four commands. * On day 353 (Dec 19), the 152nd momentum dump was executed successfully on Ahead at 1830z, which imparted an estimated delta V of 0.057 m/sec. This was the 71st momentum dump conducted without gyro use. After thruster operations completed, there was a 1.1 degree of roll angle error. Fine pointing stabilized 2.9 minutes after completion of the momentum dump. * As of day 359 (Dec 25), all PLASTIC systems are behaving well, except there is a moderate background count rate, which the team is continuing to monitor. * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 6.4 Gbits during this week. Week 52 (Dec 27-Jan 1) * On day 364 (Dec 30), during the DSS-34 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently between 0320z and 0538z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of eleven 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 for day 363-2124z. * On day 364 (Dec 30), during the DSS-25 support for Ahead, the transmitter was declared red due to a hardware problem. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 3.4 hours of real-time commanding and 2-way tracking data. See DR #G123353 for more information. * As of day 001 (Jan 1), all PLASTIC systems are behaving well, except there is a moderate background count rate, which the team is continuing to monitor. * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 6.4 Gbits during this week. Week 1 (Jan 2-8) * Ahead has nine tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * Solar Orbiter will be observing a transit of Mercury on Tuesday, Jan 3. Week 2 (Jan 9-15) * Ahead has nine tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. Week 3 (Jan 16-22) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * APL will be closed Monday, Jan 16, for the Martin Luther King holiday. Week 4 (Jan 23-29) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * A Project Interface Test will be carried with station 25 on Tuesday, Jan 24. There will be no instrument commanding or SSR playback during this track. * The 153rd momentum dump on Ahead is scheduled for Thursday, Jan 26, with ignition at 15:00 UT. Week 5 (Jan 23-Feb 5) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * DSN will be performing mission network maintenance on Wednesday, Feb 1, between 12:30-20:30 UT. Ahead will have a support immediately following this period, and the MOC will test connectivity before the pass. Week 6 (Feb 6-12) * Ahead has nine tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 01: M Jan 02 (002) New Year observed T Jan 03 (003) Solar Orbiter Mercury transit W Jan 04 (004) T Jan 05 (005) F Jan 06 (006) S Jan 07 (007) S Jan 08 (008) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 02: M Jan 09 (009) T Jan 10 (010) W Jan 11 (011) T Jan 12 (012) F Jan 13 (013) S Jan 14 (014) S Jan 15 (015) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 03: M Jan 16 (016) Martin Luther King holiday T Jan 17 (017) W Jan 18 (018) T Jan 19 (019) F Jan 20 (020) S Jan 21 (021) S Jan 22 (022) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 04: M Jan 23 (023) T Jan 24 (024) Ahead: Project Interface Test with station 25 W Jan 25 (025) T Jan 26 (026) Ahead: Momentum dump, 15:00 UT F Jan 27 (027) S Jan 28 (028) S Jan 29 (029) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 05: M Jan 30 (030) T Jan 31 (031) W Feb 01 (032) DSN network maintenance, 12:30-20:30 UT T Feb 02 (033) F Feb 03 (034) S Feb 04 (035) S Feb 05 (036) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 06: M Feb 06 (037) T Feb 07 (038) W Feb 08 (039) T Feb 09 (040) F Feb 10 (041) S Feb 11 (042) S Feb 12 (043) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2023: * Mar 13-23 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Mar 22-Apr 1 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 7 * Apr 4-17 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 8 * Apr 16 Solar Orbiter Venus occultation * Apr 20-24 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 9 * May 5 Behind: Mercury transit * Jun 17-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jun 27 Solar Orbiter Mercury transit * 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 * Oct 1-10 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 10 * Oct 12-21 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 11 * Oct 23-Nov 1 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 12 * 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