ESA Science & Technology - No. 83 - Near Sun Hibernation Mode

All activities have been conducted according to the plan. A total of 4 New Norcia passes were taken during this period for monitoring purposes.

At the end of the reporting period (DOY 187) Rosetta was at 167.6 million km from Earth (1.12 AU; one-way signal travel time was 9 minutes and 19 seconds). The distance to the Sun was 235.5 million km (1.54 AU).

Spacecraft

Payload
No activities have been conducted during the reporting period. For the Standard Radiation Environment Monitor (SREM) the accumulation settings have been configured for passive cruise mode since DoY 155.

Future Milestones

The Near Sun Hibernation Phase will last until the beginning of September. During this period weekly contacts are foreseen for monitoring purposes. In early September the spacecraft will be reconfigured back to Active Cruise Mode in order to later execute the active payload checkout 6, at the end of September. This will be done in preparation of the second Earth swing-by which takes place on 13 November 2007.

After the payload checkout the navigation campaign linked to the Earth swing-by will begin and last until the end of November.