No. 101 - Mission Progress
VIRTIS operations remained disabled during this period. The rest of observations took place routinely during this reporting period.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
MET (Day) | Date | DOY | Main Activity |
705 | 14/10/07 | 287 | Routine operations |
706 | 15/10/07 | 288 | Routine operations |
707 | 16/10/07 | 289 | Routine Operations. |
708 | 17/10/07 | 290 | Routine Operations |
709 | 18/10/07 | 291 | Routine Operations |
710 | 19/10/07 | 292 | Routine Operations & switch to quadrature operations |
711 | 20/10/07 | 293 | Routine Operations. |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 293, 18:00z) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 94.6 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 315 seconds.
Payload Activities
ASPERA
The instrument was operated as part of the routine plan.
MAG
The instrument was operated as part of the routine plan.
PFS
The instrument was not operated during the reporting period.
SPICAV
The instrument was operated as part of the routine plan.
VeRA
No RSI activities took place this week.
VIRTIS
The instrument was not operated during the reporting period. VMOC has completed the development of new procedures to operate the cooler motors of both the H and M units. All covers are closed and VIRTIS is in a safe state.
VMC
The instrument was operated as part of the routine plan.
Future Milestones
- Swap to HGA1 – 29 October 2007
- Restart of VIRTIS operations with new procedures
- Release of new version of the SOIA to be applied for the mission extension.