Status Report Archive

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Report for Period 31 August to 6 September 2008

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. An orbit control manoeuvre (OCM) was successfully completed on 31 August (DoY 244). The manoeuvre constituted a phase correction, intended to keep the phasing of Venus Express in its orbit in sync with mission operations from ground. The downlink window with the Cebreros ground station needs to be kept in a certain time window.

Report for Period 30 August to 5 September 2008

The reporting period was characterised by the final navigation of Rosetta towards asteroid Steins, culminating in the successful flyby on the evening of 5 September 2008 at 18:38 UTC (the exact time of closest approach to be confirmed after detailed analysis of telemetry data). The navigation was completed with a trajectory control manoeuvre (TCM) executed at about 36 hours before the closest approach (CA).

Report for Period 24 August to 30 August 2008

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. The atmospheric drag experiment measurement passes associated with the pericentre altitude lowering campaign have now concluded.

Report for Period 16 August to 29 August 2008

Operations during the two weeks covered in this report focused on the refinement of the orbit determination process in the frame of the asteroid fly-by operations. Rosetta is now permanently pointing to asteroid Steins with occasional re-pointings required for instruments calibrations in preparation of the fly-by. Navigation images of asteroid Steins are taken daily with the spacecraft navigation cameras and the narrow angle camera of the OSIRIS instrument.

Report for Period 17 August to 23 August 2008

All operations have been nominal during the reporting period. Five successive passes around pericentre were devoted to spacecraft tracking as part of the atmospheric drag experiment (ADE).

Report for Period 3 August to 15 August 2008

With the end of the payload check-out 8 Rosetta entered the asteroid Steins fly-by navigation campaign. During the two-week reporting period, operations have been characterised by asteroid observation sessions with the navigation cameras (NAVCAMs) and OSIRIS.

Report for Period 10 August to 16 August 2008

All operations have been nominal during the reporting period.

Report for Period 3 August to 9 August 2008

All operations have been nominal during the reporting period. The fourth and final pair of Orbit Control Manoeuvres (OCMs) to lower the pericenter altitude and to raise the apocentre altitude was executed. For the first time, there have been clear indications of a very low level of atmospheric drag causing an estimated reduction in apocentre altitude of 6-7 metres at each pericentre passage.

Report for Period 19 July to 2 August 2008

The two weeks covered by this report have seen the completion of the active payload check-out 8 activities. Operations have been nominal and the mission timeline continues now with the optical navigation campaign required for the early September fly-by of asteroid Steins.

Report for Period 27 July to 2 August 2008

Report for Period 20 July to 26 July 2008

All operations have been nominal during the reporting period. During this period the second pair of Orbit Control Manoeuvres (OCM) to reduce the pericentre altitude and to raise the apocentre altitude was executed. Planning of the third pair was performed and commands were uploaded to the spacecraft for execution during the next reporting period.

Report for Period 13 July to 19 July 2008

All operations have been nominal during the reporting period. During this period the first pair of Orbit Control Manoeuvres (OCM) to reduce the pericentre altitude and to raise the apocentre altitude was executed. Planning of the second pair was performed and commands were uploaded to the spacecraft for execution during the next reporting period.

Report for Period 5 July to 18 July 2008

During the reporting period the first two weeks of the active payload check-out 8 were executed, as well as the attitude and orbit control system (AOCS) check-out 8.

Report for Period 7 June to 4 July 2008

On 1 July 2008, DoY 183, Rosetta was taken out of Near Sun Hibernation Mode (NSHM) and reconfigured to Active Cruise Mode in preparation of the asteroid Steins fly-by phase.

Report for Period 6 July to 12 July 2008

All operations have been nominal during the reporting period.

Between 13 July and 5 August 2008 a series of manoeuvres is performed to lower the pericentre altitude of Venus Express (see also the link on the right hand side for more details). The first pair of manoeuvres (one manoeuvre to raise the apocentre altitude and one to lower the pericentre altitude) was planned and uploaded to the spacecraft. The two manoeuvres will be executed during the next reporting period.

Report for Period 29 June to 5 July 2008

All operations have been nominal during the reporting period. The telecommunication (TC) bit rate has been increased to 2 kbps.

Report for Period 22 June to 28 June 2008

The reporting period was the first complete week of nominal science operations after the solar conjunction phase.

Report for Period 15 June to 21 June 2008

The reporting period covered the last days of solar conjunction phase operations (ending on 19 June), the reconfiguration of the solid state mass memory (SSMM) and the resume of science activities. Commanding tests and recording of open loop data continued until the exit from the conjunction phase.

The reporting period covered conjunction phase operations. During this phase, groundstation pass operations are reduced: no science activities are carried out, no solid state mass memory (SSMM) dumping takes place.

Report for Period 10 May to 6 June 2008

Rosetta is continuing its fourth orbit around the Sun as part of its interplanetary journey. The spacecraft distance from the Sun will now increase to reach a maximum of about 2.26 AU in December 2008.