STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2023-02-21 (Week 8) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None 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 7 (Feb 13-19) * On day 044 (Feb 13), DSS-26 conducted a successful Project Interface Test with Ahead. The purpose was to validate tracking and telemetry performance for DTT software (v15.1). The MOC successfully received monitor data, real-time telemetry, and sent four commands. * On 044 (Feb 13), APL network engineers successfully upgraded the MOC Restricted IONET and DMZ network firewall software. * On day 045 (Feb 14), during the DSS-56 support for Ahead, the beginning of track was delayed 1.7 hours until 2223z, due to a receiver problem. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 1.7 hours of real-time telemetry, commanding, tracking, and SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the support and recovered all the affected data, except for causing the SECCHI SSR partition 19 to fill for 1.1 hours on DOY 046. See DR #M115552 for more information. * On day 048 (Feb 17), during the DSS-55 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1246z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of twelve frames of SSR data. * On day 046 (Feb 15), during the DSS-63 support, the SECCHI SSR Partition 19 reached 100% full for 1.1 hours from 1057z to 1202z. The SSR pointer repositioning on DOY 045 to recover data from the failed DSS-56 support caused this issue. * On day 047 (Feb 16), the MOPs team successfully conducted the 12th battery discharge event on Ahead at 1400z to redistribute the electrolytes within the nickel hydrogen battery cells. * As of day 050 (Feb 19), 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 6.1 Gbits during this week. Week 8 (Feb 20-26) * A successful IT security scan of the MOC was carried out yesterday (Feb 20). * The DSN pass with station 65 yesterday (Feb 20) was delayed 32 minutes due to a problem that required switching out equipment. The pointers were moved back. Later in the track, an operator error sent predicts for another mission to the wrong antenna, causing periods of dropped lock while the operators tried to recover. A comment was made that there seemed to be an uptick in such errors. The standard is still three links per operator, but staffing problems have sometimes led to four links per operator. * The 65th SECCHI stepped calibration roll is scheduled for Friday, Feb 24, starting at 12:55 UT. Note that this is five minutes earlier than originally announced. 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. * The 154th momentum dump on Ahead is scheduled for Monday, Mar 6, with ignition at 22:00 UT. * Daylight Savings Time in the US begins on Sunday, Mar 12. Week 11 (Mar 13-19) * Ahead has nine tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * The Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass starts on Mar 13, and runs through Mar 23 (DOY 72-82). Week 12 (Mar 20-26) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * The Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window #7 starts on Wednesday, Mar 22, and runs through Apr 1 (DOY 81-91). Week 13 (Mar 27-Apr 2) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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) Ahead: Momentum dump, 22:00 UT T Mar 07 (066) W Mar 08 (067) T Mar 09 (068) F Mar 10 (069) S Mar 11 (070) S Mar 12 (071) Daylight Savings Time begins in US ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 11: M Mar 13 (072) Beginning of Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass T Mar 14 (073) W Mar 15 (074) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 campaign T Mar 16 (075) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 campaign F Mar 17 (076) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign S Mar 18 (077) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign S Mar 19 (078) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign Notes: * Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass, Mar 13-23 * SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign, Mar 17-20 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 12: M Mar 20 (079) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign T Mar 21 (080) W Mar 22 (081) Start of Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 7 T Mar 23 (082) End of Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass F Mar 24 (083) S Mar 25 (084) S Mar 26 (085) Notes: * Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass, Mar 13-23 * SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign, Mar 17-20 * Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 7, Mar 22-Apr 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 13: M Mar 27 (086) T Mar 28 (087) W Mar 29 (088) T Mar 30 (089) F Mar 31 (090) S Apr 01 (091) End of Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 7 S Apr 02 (092) Notes: * Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 7, Mar 22-Apr 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2023: * Apr 4-17 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 8 * Apr 16 Solar Orbiter Venus occultation * Apr 20-24 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 9 * Jun 17-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jun 27 Solar Orbiter Mercury transit * Jul 2 Behind: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 17 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 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