23 Sep 2008 12:51

Mission operations were conducted with the support of the ESA New Norcia (NNO) ground station and with NASA DSN ground stations (DSS).  

At the end of the reporting period (DoY 263) Rosetta was at 386.1 million km from Earth (2.58 AU) and the one-way signal travel time was 1288 seconds. The distance to the Sun was 324.1 million km (2.16 AU).

Spacecraft

Payload
The payload complement completed the fly-by campaign as planned, with most of the instruments now switched off.

ALICE
The instrument is OFF.

CONSERT
The instrument is OFF.

COSIMA
The instrument is OFF.

GIADA
The instrument is OFF.

MIDAS
The instrument is OFF.

MIRO
The instrument is OFF.

OSIRIS
The instrument remains active for the observations of gravitational microlensing events that will be completed by 5 October 2008.

ROSINA
The instrument is OFF.

RPC
The instrument is OFF.

RSI
The instrument is muted.

VIRTIS
The instrument is OFF.

LANDER Philae
The instrument is OFF.

SREM
Since DoY 184/2008 the accumulation settings are configured for active cruise mode.

Future Milestones

The fly-by operations are now completed and the OSIRIS observations of gravitational microlensing events will be completed by 5 October. The spacecraft will then continue its fourth orbit around the Sun reaching aphelion on 17 December 2008 at a distance of 2.26 AU. It then heads back to Earth for the mission's last gravity assist and third Earth swing-by on 13 November 2009.

The angular separation between the spacecraft and the Sun will stay below 3° (conjunction) between 17 December 2008 and 6 January 2009 with the minimum angular separation (1.6°) on 28 December. No special activities are planned for this conjunction phase during which short weekly passes will be taken.

---
Legal disclaimer
This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, WOR #105. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (bottom of this page) for terms of use.