No. 153 - Orbit determination and spacecraft reconfiguration
Orbit determination following the set of burns for RDVM# 1 has revealed that the manoeuvre was almost perfect and any correction would have required a Trim 2 burn with a ΔV of a few millimetres per second – well below the threshold where a correction is considered necessary. With this manoeuvre completed, the spacecraft is now on a fly-by trajectory for Comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko with a miss-distance of about 50,000 kilometres. After the completion of the RDVM#1 activities the spacecraft has been changed back to its normal configuration and is ready to complete pre-hibernation activities.
During the reporting period, mission operations were conducted using the ESA New Norcia (NNO) and Cebreros (CEB) ground stations and the DSS 14 (Goldstone, 70 metres), DSS 24 (Goldstone, 34 metres), DSS 25 (Goldstone, 34 metres), DSS 26 (Goldstone, 34 metres), DSS 34 (Canberra, 34 metres), DSS 45 (Canberra, 34 metres), DSS 54 (Madrid, 34 metres), and DSS 55 (Madrid, 34 metres) NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas.
|
Main activities during reporting period | |||
| DoY | Date | Pass | Activity |
| 053 | 22-Feb-2011 | DSS-26 2555 DSS-14 2555 DSS-45 2555 |
Monitor DDOR DDOR |
| 054 | 23-Feb-2011 |
NNO 2255 |
DDOR DDOR Monitor Monitor |
| 055 | 24-Feb-2011 | DSS-255 2557 NNO 2557 |
Monitor |
| 056 | 25-Feb-2011 | NNO 2257 CSB 2258 |
|
| 057 | 26-Feb-2011 | DSS-55 2559 DSS-26 2559 NNO 2559 |
Monitor |
| 058 | 27-Feb-2011 | DSS-26 2560 | Monitor |
| 059 | 28-Feb-2011 | DSS-54 2561 NNO 2561 |
Monitor |
| 060 | 1-Mar-2011 | DSS-26 2562 | Monitor |
| 061 | 2-Mar-2011 | DSS-54 2553 NNO 2563 |
Monitor |
| 062 | 3-Mar-2011 | DSS-24 2554 NNO 2564 |
Monitor |
| 063 | 4-Mar-2011 | DSS-26 2565 | Spacecraft reconfigured after RDVM#1 |
|
DoY = Day of year | |||
At the end of the reporting period on 4 March, Rosetta was 533.2 million kilometres from Earth (3.56 AU); one-way signal travel time was 1779 seconds (29 minutes 39 seconds). The distance from the Sun was 610.3 million kilometres (4.08 AU).
Spacecraft
| 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
Activities linked to RDVM#1 are now complete, with the flight plans now focussing on the remaining payload activities to be completed by the end of March. The spacecraft will then be ready for the opposition phase in April and May.
Summary of upcoming events:
- 05 March 2011: MIDAS activities
- 06 March 2011: ALICE activities
- 22-25 March 2011: OSIRIS activities
- 12 April 2011: Start of opposition phase
- 20 May 2011: End of opposition phase
- 08 June 2011: Hibernation entry
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Legal disclaimer
This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, WOR #153. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (linked from the home page http://sci.esa.int) for terms of use.