No. 150 - First rendezvous manoeuvre
During the second planned burn the spacecraft entered safe mode due to a large performance anomaly in the reaction control system (RCS). The spacecraft was promptly recovered and the mission control team at ESOC implemented a new operations strategy for the RCS to mitigate the problem. In view of the problems experienced, the manoeuvre and its split had to be redesigned and was then completed with the use of the redundant thruster set. Spacecraft behaviour was also non-nominal with the use of the new operating mode and the redundant thrusters; however, the replanned burns were completed successfully. The spacecraft is currently in nominal status and on track to perform the final trim manoeuvre (∆V 17.6 ms-1 TBC, about 2 per cent of the total) on 10 February.
During the reporting period, mission operations were conducted using the ESA New Norcia (NNO) ground station and the DSS-24 (Goldstone, 34 metres), DSS-25 (Goldstone, 34 metres), DSS-26 (Goldstone, 34 metres) and DSS-65 (Madrid, 34 metres) NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas.
|
Main activities during reporting period | |||
| DoY | Date | Pass | Activity |
| 017 |
17-Jan-2011 |
DSS-26 2519 NNO 2519 |
RDVM#1 burn 1A (300 ms-1) |
| 018 |
18-Jan-2011 |
DSS-26 2520 NNO 2520 |
RDVM#1 burn 1B (274 ms-1, interrupted by safe mode after about 30 ms-1) |
| 019 |
19-Jan-2011 |
DSS-26 2521 NNO 2521 |
Safe mode recovery completion |
| 020 |
20-Jan-2011 |
DSS-26 2522 NNO 2522 |
RCS reconfiguration and RCS B performance test |
| 021 |
21-Jan-2011 |
DSS-26 2523 NNO 2523 |
RDVM#1 Test Burn (35 ms-1) |
| 022 |
22-Jan-2011 |
DSS-26 2524 NNO 2524 |
RDVM#1 burn 2A (160 ms-1) |
| 023 |
23-Jan-2011 |
DSS-26 2525 NNO 2525 |
RDVM#1 burn 2B (200 ms-1) |
| 024 |
24-Jan-2011 |
DSS-26 2526 NNO 2526 |
RDVM#1 burn 2C (45 ms-1) |
At the end of the reporting period on 24 January, Rosetta was 598.2 million km from Earth (3.99 AU); the one-way signal travel time was 33 min 16 sec (1996 sec). The spacecraft's distance from the Sun was 583 million km (3.90 AU).
Spacecraft
A performance anomaly in the reaction control system (thought to have been caused by thruster 9A) led to an attitude pointing error and then to the spacecraft transitioning to level two safe mode during burn 1B on 18 January. Following a switchover to the redundant thruster set and replanning of the rendezvous manoeuvre, the remaining burns were completed successfully.
| Payload Status | |
| ALICE | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| CONSERT | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| COSIMA | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| GIADA | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| MIDAS | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| MIRO | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| OSIRIS | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| ROSINA | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| RPC | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| RSI | The USO is ON/muted since 3 February 2010 (DoY 032/2010). |
| VIRTIS | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| Lander (Philae) | The instrument is currently OFF. |
| SREM | The instrument is ON with standard settings since 3 February 2010 (DoY 032/2010). |
Future milestones
The spacecraft trajectory is now being carefully analysed to assess the exact performance of the bulk of the first rendezvous manoeuvre. Once this assessment is complete, the trim manoeuvre, planned for the 10 February with a nominal ΔV of 17.6 ms-1 will be finalised in terms of magnitude and direction. Any remaining residual errors will be cleared with a second trim manoeuvre in March.
Summary of upcoming events:
- 10 February 2011: TRIM 1 manoeuvre (nominal ΔV 17.6 ms-1)
- 17 February 2011: Solar arrays performance test at 4 AU
- 03 March 2011: TRIM 2 manoeuvre
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Legal disclaimer
This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, WOR #150. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (linked from the home page http://sci.esa.int) for terms of use.