No. 107 - Mission Operations Update
Spacecraft and ground segment performance during the reporting period have been nominal. Mission operations were conducted with the support of the ESA New Norcia (NNO) ground station and the NASA Goldstone DSN ground station (DSS).
| DOY | Date | Pass | Main Activity |
| 283 | 09/10/08 | DSS-24 1687 | Monitoring |
| 290 | 16/10/08 | DSS-24 1694 |
Monitoring |
| 296 | 22/10/08 | NNO 1700 |
COSIMA TMU recovery part 1 |
| 297 | 23/10/08 | NNO 1701 |
Pass cancelled in favour of XMM-Newton communication recovery (see also "Radio contact re-established with XMM-Newton" in the right-hand menu) |
| 298 | 24/10/08 | NNO 1702 |
COSIMA TMU recovery part 2 |
| 302 | 28/10/08 | NNO 1706 |
Monitoring |
| 305 | 31/10/08 | NNO 1709 |
Monitoring |
At the end of the reporting period (DoY 305) Rosetta was at 451.26 million km from Earth (3.01 AU) and the one-way signal travel time was 1505 seconds. The distance to the Sun was 334.65 million km (2.23 AU).
Spacecraft
Payload
All instruments are now switched off except for the Standard Radiation Environment Monitor (SREM) that continues to run in the background.
ALICE
The instrument is OFF.
CONSERT
The instrument is OFF.
COSIMA
The instrument was activated between DoY 296 and 298 to perform an investigation of a problem that occurred during the asteroid Steins fly-by campaign. Activities have confirmed a working Target Manipulation Unit (TMU) and reinforced the suspicion that the problem was due to high torques deriving from low temperature of the bundle of cables. Further tests are planned for the next reporting period.
GIADA
The instrument is OFF.
MIDAS
The instrument is OFF.
MIRO
The instrument is OFF.
OSIRIS
The instrument is OFF.
ROSINA
The instrument is OFF.
RPC
The instrument is OFF.
RSI
The instrument is muted.
VIRTIS
The instrument is OFF.
LANDER Philae
The instrument is OFF.
SREM
Since DoY 184/2008 the accumulation settings are configured for active cruise mode.
Future Milestones
The spacecraft is configured for low activity cruise. The check-out of the Radio science experiment will be executed in the next reporting period together with some investigation and recovery activities for the COSIMA and Lander instruments.
The spacecraft continues its fourth orbit around the Sun reaching aphelion on 17 December 2008 at a distance of 2.26 AU. It then heads back to Earth for the mission's last gravity assist and third Earth swing-by on 13 November 2009.
The angular separation between the Earth and the Sun as seen from the spacecraft will stay below 3° (conjunction) between 17 December 2008 and 6 January 2009 with the minimum angular separation (1.65°) occurring on 27 December. On that day the minimum angle between the spacecraft and the Sun as seen from Earth will be 3.8°.
No special activities are planned for this conjunction phase during which short weekly passes will be taken.
---
Legal disclaimer
This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, WOR #107. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (bottom of this page) for terms of use.