No. 5 - Latest on Rosetta commissioning
On the spacecraft subsystems side, the High Gain Antenna pattern calibration was performed, by pointing the antenna in different directions and slewing the spacecraft on a spiralling pattern, such that the gain of the received signal on the ground could be measured by the New Norcia station.
All activities were executed according to plan and in some cases the operations planned for a full night pass could be finished well ahead of time.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
|
Mission Day |
Date |
DOY |
Main Activity |
|
18 |
19/20.03.04 | 79/80 | ROSINA commissioning pass 1 (COPS) |
|
19 |
20/21.03.04 | 80/81 | ROSINA commissioning pass 2 (COPS) |
|
20 |
21/22.03.04 | 81/82 | HGA pattern calibration |
|
21 |
22/23.03.04 | 82/83 | ALICE commissioning pass 1 |
|
22 |
23/24.03.04 | 83/84 | ALICE commissioning pass 2 |
|
23 |
24/25.03.04 | 84/85 | VIRTIS commissioning pass 1 |
|
24 |
25/26.03.04 | 85/86 | VIRTIS commissioning pass 2 |
At the end of the last New Norcia pass in the reporting period (DOY 086, 08:17) Rosetta was at 7.9 million km from the Earth. The return signal travel time was 53 seconds.
Last Update: 1 September 2019