SMART-1 status 40 hours after launch
29 September 2003
At about 40 hours of Mission Elapsed Time (starting from Launch), the commissioning of the SMART-1 spacecraft is proceeding nominally.The spacecraft automatic activation went perfectly, including the opening of the solar panels and its orientation towards the Sun in Safe mode. Right thereafter, the flight control team requested the spacecraft to send data at 'high rate' so that all possible information could be received on the ground for further analysis.
Next the commissioning of the spacecraft subsystems were started.
The commissioning was performed to verify that the system was working properly and to tune some parameters that needed to be adjusted to orbit conditions. A small correction was also needed in the way the software handles the so-called Single Event Upsets, generated by the radiation environment into the Random Access Memory.
Today at 15:30 UTC the pre-commissioning of the first scientific instrument was completed: D-CIXS. The instrument PI team received and analysed calibration data and found them nominal.
The scheduled commissioning phase will be continued. The Electric Propulsion activation and commissioning will probably start as planned tomorrow, 30 September.