Search Results:

Report for Period 22 March to 28 march 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during the reporting period. Taking advantage of the high telemetry bit rate (228 kbps), this week had a high level of science data production.

Report for Period 15 March to 21 march 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week.

Report for Period 8 March to 14 march 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week.

Report for Period 1 March to 7 March 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week.

Report for Period 22 February to 28 February 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week.

Report for Period 15 February to 21 February 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week. The third VIRTIS cooler test took place on 19 February and the results are currently being analyzed by the VIRTIS PI Team.

Report for Period 8 February to 14 february 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week. The commissioning of the B branch of the Reaction Control Subsystem (RCS) on 12 February 2009 has been successful.

Report for Period 1 February to 7 February 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week, with VIRTIS continued being operated in visual channels only.

Report for Period 25 January to 31 January 2009

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. Sunday, 25 January, was the last day of this inbound quadrature phase. Having been in a tilted configuration since 19 December 2008, the spacecraft started performing communication passes in a non-tilted configuration again on 26 January.

Report for Period 18 January to 24 January 2009

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. The spacecraft is still in quadrature phase, performing communications passes in a tilted configuration since 19 December 2008.

Report for Period 11 january to 17 January 2009

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. The spacecraft is still in quadrature phase, performing communications passes in a tilted configuration since 19 December 2008. On 13 January the High Gain Antenna (HGA) swap from HGA1 to HGA2 was executed.

Report for Period 4 January 2009 to 10 January 2009

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. The spacecraft is still in quadrature phase, performing communications passes in a tilted configuration since 19 December 2008.

Report for Period 28 December 2008 to 3 January 2009

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. The spacecraft is currently in quadrature phase, when the Sun-Spacecraft-Earth angle is between 75° and 95°.

Report for Period 21 December to 27 December 2008

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. The spacecraft is currently in quadrature phase, when the Sun-Spacecraft-Earth angle is between 75° and 95°.

Report for Period 14 December to 20 December 2008

The Venus Express spacecraft entered nominally in the quadrature phase - the period during which the Sun-Spacecraft-Earth angle is between 75° and 95°. During the quadrature phase revised operating constraints on the VMC lead to the necessity for changing the spacecraft attitude to prevent unacceptable illumination of the VMC. To achieve this attitude fake ephemerides on the positions of the spacecraft and the Earth are uploaded to Venus Express. The first tilted communications pass was on 19 December 2008.

Report for Period 7 December to 13 December 2008

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. VIRTIS continues to be operated in the visual channels only. Time correlation was performed on DOY 344. Radio Science Investigation (RSI) occultation measurements were taken during five ground station passes in the reporting period.

Report for Period 30 November to 6 December 2008

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. The first day of the reporting period was the last day of the extended maintenance downtime for the Cebreros ground station. On this last day (DOY 335) the New Norcia ground station performed the communication pass. The Cebreros ground station was returned to operations on DOY 336 and subsequently resumed to support the daily communication passes for Venus Express.

Report for Period 23 November to 29 November 2008

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. Because of on-going maintenance activities at Cebreros, the New Norcia (NNO) ground station was used for communication with the spacecraft. Some of these communication passes were combined with radio science occultation experiments. On two occasions NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) stations were used to support communication with the spacecraft.

Report for Period 16 November to 22 November 2008

This reporting period marks the beginning of the Cebreros ground station downtime, which will be out of operations until 1 December 2008 for refurbishment activities. The New Norcia ground station is used for routine communication with the spacecraft during the Cebreros downtime. At the same time, radio science investigation (RSI) occultation observations are also performed during certain New Norcia passes, combining this activity with the routine communication tasks.

Report for Period 9 November to 15 November 2008

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. The batteries have performed nominally during the eclipse season that started on 19 September and ended on 12 November 2008 (DOY 317). VIRTIS was only operated in the visual channels.