ESA Science & Technology - No. 35 - Rosetta

On 17 January a CCD health check on Star Tracker B was carried out, to confirm the existence of a hot pixel detected in December by the on-board software. This activity triggered other investigations on both Star Trackers, as on the same day Star Tracker A also detected a hot pixel. After power cycling both Star Trackers did not report any hot pixel anymore. A final CCD Health check was executed on 27 January and data are still being analysed.

On 20 January the OSIRIS instrument was activated and a software upload was successfully carried out to solve a problem on the door mechanism detected in the commissioning phase. Unfortunately the tests following the software update concluded that the new software did not solve the problem. Investigations by the instrument team will continue. In this occasion the instrument took pictures of comet Macholtz, as part of the verification of the instrument operations. OSIRIS was deactivated at the end of the New Norcia pass.

SREM is kept active for background monitoring operations. All other instruments are inactive.

Four passes were taken in the reporting period over New Norcia. In addition, on DSN request, a pass over DSS-24 was taken to support a test of the new ground equipment NSP 5.5.1. This test however was not successful due to an unexpected configuration on DSN side, which prevented a connection from ESOC. A slot for test repetition will be agreed in the near future, either with Rosetta or Mars Express.

The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period (only active passes shown):

At the end of the last New Norcia pass in the reporting period (DOY 027) Rosetta was at 13.4 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 44 seconds.