STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2023-01-31 (Week 5) 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 4 (Jan 23-29) * On day 024 (Jan 24), during the DSS-25 support for Ahead, the antenna was declared red, due to a mechanical problem. Maintenance fixed the antenna just prior to EOT and the MOC received seven minutes of telemetry. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 1.3 hours of real-time telemetry and command. The canceled DSN DTT v15.1 PIT is rescheduled for day 044 (Feb 13). See DR #G123443 for more information. * On day 025 (Jan 25), the APL 18 meter antenna successfully performed a track with Ahead from 1840z to 2000z to analyze the downlink performance at the 160 Kbps and 240 Kbps rates. The 160 kbps downlink locked with 4.8 dB margin and 240 Kbps downlink locked with 2.4 dB margin. The test confirmed the link margin calculations and that the 18 meter antenna can downlink at the 720 Kbps rate at a distance less than 20,000,000 km. A question was asked whether additional tests will be made at higher rates as the spacecraft gets closer. None are planned at this time, but tests will be made first if it is decided to start using the station. At the moment the station is not capable of flowing the data to the MOC, and does not have a X-band transmitter for uplink. * On day 027 (Jan 27), during the DSS-36 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1009z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of four frames of SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the subsequent DSS-26 track and recovered all the affected data. Also, ranging dropped lock unexpectedly at 1043z to 1048z. See DR # C117063 for more information. * On day 026 (Jan 26), the 153rd momentum dump on Ahead was executed successfully at 1500z, which imparted an estimated delta V of 0.060 m/sec. This was the 72nd momentum dump conducted without gyro use. After thruster operations completed, there was a 0.5 degree of roll angle error. Fine pointing stabilized 3.2 minutes after completion of the momentum dump. * As of day 029 (Jan 29), all PLASTIC systems on Ahead 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 6.2 Gbits during this week. Week 5 (Jan 30-Feb 5) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * A data control test was performed this morning (Jan 31) with the DSN. Previous server issues that were preventing APL from connecting for telemetry have been resolved, and the MOC was able to bind to the SLE system. The MOC will continue to use the new system, and check that it worked okay during a track this afternoon. More information will be provided in next week's status report. * 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. DSN reports that they are still on track with the test. 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. * The aborted Project Interface Test on Jan 24 will now be carried out with station 36 on Monday, Feb 13, between 01:10-03:05 UT. There will be no instrument commanding or SSR playback during this test. * 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. * Maintenance on the MOC network will be performed between 13-15 UT on Monday, Feb 20. * The 65th SECCHI stepped calibration roll is scheduled for Friday, Feb 24, starting at 13:00 UT. Week 9 (Feb 27-Mar 5) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. Week 10 (Mar 6-12) * Ahead has nine tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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) Ahead: Project Interface Test with station 36, 01:10-03:05 UT 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) MOC network maintenance, 13-15 UT T Feb 21 (052) W Feb 22 (053) T Feb 23 (054) F Feb 24 (055) Ahead: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 13 UT 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) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 10: M Mar 06 (065) T Mar 07 (066) W Mar 08 (067) T Mar 09 (068) F Mar 10 (069) S Mar 11 (070) S Mar 12 (071) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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