STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2009-12-15 (Week 51) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * All subsystems on both spacecraft are nominal. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 50 * A number of problems have been seen for both spacecraft over the week with momentarily losses of turbo decoder lock on station 55. This has been happening with other missions as well. This happened on Ahead on days 344 and 346 (Dec 10, 12), and on Behind on days 342, 343, 344, and 346, (Dec 8, 9, 10, 12), resulting in short losses of SSR telemetry. * Behind switched to the 240 kbps rate on Dec 8, starting with the pass beginning at 14:20 UT on station 55. Ahead will remain at 360 kbps until April. * More macros and tables were uploaded to Behind on day 343 (Dec 9) for the 240 and 120 kbps rates to make them more efficient. * The average daily SSR downlink was 6.4 gigabits for Ahead, and 5.3 gigabits for Behind. Week 51 * PLASTIC will be performing realtime commanding on Ahead tomorrow (Dec 16). * APL suffered an internet outage today (Dec 15), but connectivity has been restored. Week 52 * The 20th momentum dump will be carried out on Behind on day 356 (Dec 22) at 16:00 UT. * The Thursday before Christmas (Dec 24) is a half-day holiday at APL. * STEREO was asked to minimize their track support over the holidays. This was done, but STEREO requires a track every day which limited the amount the schedule could be reduced. SECCHI reports that the Behind track schedule would cause them to fill up their partition, even with their lowest rate observing schedule. To mitigate that, they have decided to not perform any calibration activities during the momentum dump. They still project that the recorder will fill midway through the DSN pass on Dec 27, and ask that the SSR pointers be reset during the pass. Week 53 * New Years Eve (Dec 31) is a half-day holiday at APL. * A 70 meter track is scheduled on Behind on day 363 (Dec 29) using station 63. This pass will be carried out at 720 kbps. Week 1 * HGA calibrations will be carried out on both spacecraft on Jan 6. The start times will be Ahead: 14:00, Behind: 16:00 UT. * The 12th SECCHI stepped calibration roll will be carried out on Behind on Jan 5, starting at 12:15 UT. * A 2.5 hour PIT test track will be carried out on Behind using station 15 on Jan 7. There will be no SSR playback during this track. Other * There was a DSN Mission Forum last week. The 70 meter dishes will be phased out, and will be replaced by having five 34 meter dishes at each location. Several dishes can be arrayed together to equal the sensitivity of a single 70 meter dish. One station at each location will also have a high uplink capability. Once the new 34 meter dishes are installed at each location, the 70 meter dish will be decommissioned. * The juxtaposition of a number of missions will cause DSN contentions beginning in the spring of 2011, and continuing through the end of the year. Events contributing to this log jam are Messenger entering orbit around Jupiter, DAWN rendezvousing with Vesta, and a number of mission launches (Juno, GRAIL, MSL). COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 51: M Dec 14 (348) T Dec 15 (349) W Dec 16 (350) T Dec 17 (351) F Dec 18 (352) S Dec 19 (353) S Dec 20 (354) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 52: M Dec 21 (355) T Dec 22 (356) Behind: Momentum dump, 16:00 UT W Dec 23 (357) T Dec 24 (358) F Dec 25 (359) Christmas S Dec 26 (360) S Dec 27 (361) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 53: M Dec 28 (362) T Dec 29 (363) Behind: 720 kbps downlink on station 63 W Dec 30 (364) T Dec 31 (365) F Jan 01 (001) New Year S Jan 02 (002) S Jan 03 (003) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 01: M Jan 04 (004) T Jan 05 (005) Behind: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 12:15 W Jan 06 (006) HGA calibration, Ahead 14:00 UT, Behind 16:00 UT T Jan 07 (007) Behind: PIT test track, station 15 F Jan 08 (008) S Jan 09 (009) S Jan 10 (010) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2009: ICAL-001: Dec 14-18 SECCHI Stepped calibration rolls Ahead: Nov 24 Behind: Dec 22 * Ongoing JOP 222, Origin of SEPS, Target of opportunity 2010: ICAL-001: Jan 11-15, Feb 15-19, Mar 15-19, Apr 12-16, May 3-7 SECCHI Stepped calibration rolls Ahead: Feb 23, May 18, Aug 10, Nov 2 Behind: Apr 6, Jul 13, Oct 12 * Jan 6 Both: HGA calibration * Jan 7,15 EIT shutterless (TBC) * Spring (TBD) SUMI sounding rocket launch http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AGUSMSP51B..01A * Apr 8,15 EIT shutterless (TBC) * Apr 19 Ahead: Begin 7 hour daily DSN tracks * Apr 26 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 240 kbps * Jul 8,15 EIT shutterless (TBC) * Jul 11 Total solar eclipse http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2010/TSE2010.html * Jul 14 Both: HGA calibration * Sep 7 Both: Begin 8 hour daily DSN tracks * Sep 13 Both: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps * Nov 15 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps 2011: * Jan 12 Both: HGA calibration * Feb 6 STEREO spacecraft at 180 degree separation * Mar 18 Messenger - Mercury orbital insertion * Apr 11 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps * Jul 13 Both: HGA calibration * Aug DAWN - Vesta arrival * Sep 19 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 96 kbps * Sep 26 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 96 kbps 2012: * Jan 11 Both: HGA calibration * May DAWN - Vesta departure * Jul 11 Both: HGA calibration * Aug Both: Switch downlink rate to 30 kbps * Nov 13 Total solar eclipse, south Pacific 2013: * Dec 12 Ahead: Possible Mercury transit (TBC) 2014: * Apr 29 Behind: Possible Mercury transit (TBC) 2015: * Feb DAWN - Ceres arrival * Jan 10 - Apr 12 Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Feb 17 - Aug 2 Ahead: Spacecraft behind Sun * Jul 23 - Nov 10 Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Jul DAWN - End of nominal mission