No. 33 - Rosetta Configured For Cruise
The spacecraft was configured for cruise on 17 October, including switching off of one of the four reaction wheels. Due to inconsistent setting of the wheel speeds this action triggered an autonomous wheel offloading. For this reason an additional wheel offloading was carried out on the following day, in order to reset the speed levels to the originally planned ones.
The payload was off during the entire period. SREM was activated for background radiation monitoring on 21 October, after updating of the relevant OBCP.
Full daily passes over the New Norcia station were taken on 15 and 16 October. In addition, three short passes were taken and two skipped. On 15 October the last DSN pass of the commissioning phase was taken, over DSS-25.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
|
Mission Day |
Date |
DOY |
Main Activity |
|
228 |
15/16.10.04 |
289/290 | MGA pattern calibration |
|
229 |
16/17.10.04 |
290/291 | LGA TC threshold test and HGA-S TM/TC test |
|
230 |
17/18.10.04 |
291/292 | Spacecraft configuration for Cruise |
|
231 |
18/19.10.04 |
292/293 | Contingency Wheel-Offloading |
|
232 |
19/20.10.04 |
293/294 | Skipped pass |
|
233 |
20/21.10.04 |
294/295 | Skipped pass |
|
234 |
21/22.10.04 |
295/296 | Weekly MTL uplink + SREM reactivation |
At the end of the last New Norcia pass in the reporting period (DOY 289) Rosetta was at 63.4 million kilometres from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 3 minutes 31 seconds.
Please note: due to the low level of activity planned for the upcoming weeks, the next report will be issued in four weeks time on 19 November.