No. 14 - Continued Spacecraft Testing
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
|
MET (Day) |
Date |
DOY |
Main Activity |
|
87 |
03/02/06 |
034 |
TM Bit Rate Test |
|
88 |
04/02/06 |
035 |
SC Monitoring |
|
89 |
05/02/06 |
036 |
SC Monitoring and ASPERA calibration |
|
90 |
06/02/06 |
037 |
SC Monitoring |
|
91 |
07/02/06 |
038 |
STR B Sky survey |
|
92 |
08/02/06 |
039 |
Skipped pass - STR A Sky Survey |
|
93 |
09/02/06 |
040 |
SC Monitoring and ASPERA calibration |
At the end of the last New Norcia pass in the reporting period (DOY 040, 06:00) Venus Express was 38.2 million km from the Earth, 115.6 million km from the Sun, and 16.9 million km from Venus. The one-way signal travel time was 127 seconds.
Payload Activities
ASPERA
The instrument is off and it has been activated on DoY 036 and 039 for calibration activities.
MAG
The instrument is ON producing science. It will be temporarily switched OFF during the Main Engine calibration activities.
PFS
The instrument is off.
SPICAV
The instrument is off.
VeRA
The USO is kept powered but muted.
VIRTIS
The instrument is off.
VMC
The instrument is off.
Future Milestones
During next week the Main Engine pressurisation and calibration will take place therefore all activities will be focused around this operation.
Operations will be moved back to Cebreros but the Main Engine burn itself will be executed during a New Norcia visibility slot in order to be able to monitor S-band 2-ways Doppler during the manoeuvre.
After this manoeuvre, and an eventual correction to be done one week later, the SC will be on the trajectory leading to the target point for the Venus Orbit Insertion to take place on the 11 April.
Two more weeks will be dedicated to outstanding payload check-out and SW upload activities, after this all spacecraft operations will be focused only to VOI preparation.