No. 134 - Conjunction Phase Operations
On 6 June 2008, the extended spacecraft out-of-visibility period started for this conjunction phase, and it will last up to 12 June 2008. During this period the spacecraft will not be visible to the ground stations.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:
| MET (Day) | Date | DOY | Main Activity |
| 936 | 01/06/08 | 153 | Telemetry (TM) processing started 2 hours late due to signal noise at Cebreros. Standard conjunction commanding test performed |
| 937 | 02/06/08 | 154 | TM processing started 25 min late due to signal noise at Cebreros. Standard conjunction commanding test performed |
| 938 | 03/06/08 | 155 | TM processing started 30 min late due to signal noise at Cebreros. Standard conjunction commanding test performed |
| 939 | 04/06/08 | 156 | TM processing started 40 min late due to signal noise at Cebreros. Standard conjunction commanding test performed |
| 940 | 05/06/08 | 157 | No TM processed during the entire pass, due to signal noise at Cebreros (spacecraft line of sight proximity to the Sun). Standard conjunction commanding test performed in the blind |
| 941 | 06/06/08 | 158 | No contact with the spacecraft: start of exclusion period |
| 942 | 07/06/08 | 159 | No contact with the spacecraft |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 159) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 259.5 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 865 seconds. The spacecraft, however, was occulted by the Sun's disk and therefore not visible to the ground stations.
Payload Activities
ASPERA
The instrument was not operated during the conjunction phase.
MAG
The instrument was not operated during the conjunction phase.
PFS
The instrument was not operated during the conjunction phase.
SPICAV
The instrument was not operated during the conjunction phase.
VeRA
The instrument was not operated during the conjunction phase.
VIRTIS
The instrument was not operated during the conjunction phase.
VMC
The instrument was not operated during the conjunction phase.
Future Milestones
- Conjunction phase exit to take place on 19 June 2008, DOY 171
- SSMM reconfiguration to be performed on 20 June 2008
- Beginning of pericentre lowering operation, scheduled for 13 July 2008
- Organise an S-band carrier power test after solar conjunction
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Legal disclaimer
This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, MOR #134. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (bottom of this page) for terms of use.