ESA Science & Technology - No. 31 - Start of Last Lander Commissioning Block

On 1 October, the last nominal observation of the Pointing scenario was executed, involving the Orbiter and Lander CONSERT instruments. On 4 October, ALICE observation 20 was repeated (see also: Status Report No. 30). The instrument had provided an incorrect boresight definition for the previous execution of this observation and missed the target star in the measurements. Both observations were executed outside coverage. The data were dumped during the next New Norcia pass. One RPC observation remains to be repeated. It is scheduled for 10 October.

On 5 October, Lander commissioning operations resumed. Up to now, all objectives have been successfully met. During the last Lander pass of the reporting period, ROMAP power consumption was observed to be higher than expected. The Lander Science Operations Center reported that the ROMAP Penning hardware (used for pressure measurements) appears to be non-operational at the moment. Investigations are ongoing.

Full daily passes over the New Norcia station were taken throughout the week. In addition, a short DSN pass was taken on 7 October.

The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:

At the end of the last New Norcia pass in the reporting period (DOY 282) Rosetta was at 68.7 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 3 minutes 49 seconds.