STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2023-01-24 (Week 4) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * The next STEREO Annual Assessment is planned for Thursday, Feb 16, 2023, from 8:30-12:00 EST. The instrument teams are invited to present their instrument status. The meeting will be done via Zoom, not Conference Manager as previously announced. Meeting invitations have been sent out. 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 3 (Jan 16-22) * On day 020 (Jan 20), during the DSS-26 support for Ahead, the antenna was declared red, due to a feed mirror problem. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 1.4 hours of real-time telemetry, command, tracking and SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the subsequent DSS-56 track and recovered all the affected data. See DR #G123433 for more information. * As of day 022 (Jan 22), 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 6.3 Gbits during this week. Week 4 (Jan 23-29) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * The Project Interface Test scheduled for last night (early Jan 24 UT) will be rescheduled due to antenna 25 being red. The antenna was fixed just before the end of the test, and was able to track Ahead for 7 minutes. * Downlink testing with the APL 18 meter dish will be performed on Wednesday, Jan 25, between 18:40 and 20:00 UT. The spacecraft will be taken out of spaceweather mode during the test. The predicted performance is 720 kbps when the spacecraft is close enough. However, the data from this antenna will not flow into the ground system, so the success of this test does not mean that the station will be available for STEREO's use. Also, the station will be downlink only. * The 153rd momentum dump on Ahead is scheduled for Thursday, Jan 26, with ignition at 15:00 UT. Week 5 (Jan 30-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. * The maintenance on the MOC network originally scheduled for Monday, Feb 6, has been moved to Feb 13. Week 7 (Feb 13-19) * Ahead has eight tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps,and overall coverage is nominal. * Maintenance on the MOC network will be performed between 13-14 UT (8-9 AM local) on Monday, Feb 13. * The next STEREO Annual Assessment is planned for Thursday, Feb 16, 2023, from 8:30-12:00 EST. * The 13th battery discharge maintenance event is scheduled for Thursday, Feb.16, starting at 14:00 UT. Week 8 (Feb 20-26) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. Week 9 (Feb 27-Mar 5) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 pB campaign test run, 4-8 UT T Jan 24 (024) W Jan 25 (025) Ahead: Downlink testing with APL 18m station, 18:40-20:00 UT 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) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 07: M Feb 13 (044) MOC network maintenance, 13-14 UT T Feb 14 (045) W Feb 15 (046) T Feb 16 (047) Ahead: Battery maintenance, 14:00 UT F Feb 17 (048) S Feb 18 (049) S Feb 19 (050) Notes: * STEREO Annual Assessment, Thursday, Feb 16, 8:30-12:00 EST, APL ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 08: M Feb 20 (051) T Feb 21 (052) W Feb 22 (053) T Feb 23 (054) F Feb 24 (055) S Feb 25 (056) S Feb 26 (057) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 09: M Feb 27 (058) T Feb 28 (059) W Mar 01 (060) T Mar 02 (061) F Mar 03 (062) S Mar 04 (063) S Mar 05 (064) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2023: * Mar 13-23 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Mar 15-16 SECCHI COR2 campaign (TBC) * Mar 17-20 SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign (TBC) * 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