No. 5 - Instrument First Light
Instrument Activities
VIRTIS and VMC
In the night between 22 and 23 November the spacecraft slewed to perform an observation of the Earth-Moon system from a distance of 3.5 million km with VIRTIS and VMC. The VIRTIS instrument made observations in both the M and H channels and VMC in 4 channels.
 |
 |
|
Thermal image of Earth in VIRTIS M channel (ESA/VIRTIS Team) |
Earth-Moon system in visible light from the VMC (ESA/VMC Team) |
MAG
Initial commissioning of the MAG instrument has been conducted including the deployment of the boom. Science data has confirmed nominal deployment. After the initial two days of commissioning, MAG has been left switched on to collect science data. Switch off will take place at the end of the NECP in mid-December.
Spacecraft Activities
The spacecraft and ground behaviour has been nominal throughout the reporting period.
|
MET (Day) |
Date |
DOY |
Main Activity |
|
10 |
18/11/05 |
322 |
MAG NEC Pass 1 and Boom Deployment |
|
11 |
19/11/05 |
323 |
MAG NEC Pss 2 |
|
12 |
20/11/05 |
324 |
VIRTIS NEC Pass 1 |
|
13 |
21/11/05 |
325 |
VMS NEC Pass 1 and 2 |
|
14 |
22/11/05 |
326 |
VIRTIS NEC Pass 2 and Earth Moon Observation |
|
15 |
23/11/05 |
327 |
VMC NEC Pass 3 |
|
16 |
24/11/05 |
328 |
VIRTIS Delta testing |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 328 2000) Venus Express was at 4 mllion km from Earth, 146 million km from the Sun, and 72.5 million km from Venus. The one-way signal travel time was 13 seconds.
Upcoming Activities
Payload Commissioning will continue with the commissioning of SPICAV and then with a 7-days pointing scenario when MAG, VIRTIS, VMC, and SPICAV will be operated simultaneously to observe selected targets for calibration purposes.