No. 158 - Cebreros Refurbishment
The telemetry bit rate has to be revised down to 114 kbps for communications over New Norcia, due to this station's lower link margin.
During the reporting period VIRTIS was only operated in the visual channels.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities:
| MET (Day) | Date | DOY | Main Activity |
| 1104 | 16/11/08 | 321 | Routine Operations with Cebreros. Occultation RSI observations with Canberra-43 |
| 1105 | 17/11/08 | 322 |
Combined communications and occultation measurements pass over New Norcia. |
| 1106 | 18/11/08 | 323 |
Communications pass over New Norcia |
| 1107 | 19/11/08 | 324 |
Combined communications and occultation measurements pass over New Norcia |
| 1108 | 20/11/08 | 325 |
Communications pass over New Norcia |
| 1109 | 21/11/08 | 326 |
Combined communications and occultation measurements pass over New Norcia |
| 1110 | 22/11/08 | 327 |
Communications pass over New Norcia |
At the end of the last New Norcia pass in the reporting period (DOY 327) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 159 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 530.5 seconds.
Payload Activities
ASPERA
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
MAG
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
PFS
The instrument was not operated during the reporting period.
SPICAV
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
VeRA
Occultation measurements were taken during the reporting period on DOY 322, 324 and 326 with the New Norcia ground station. These were combined with the communications passes taking place over New Norcia during the same days.
VIRTIS
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
VIRTIS is operated in the visual channels only.
VMC
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.
Future Milestones
- High gain antenna (HGA1) S-band carrier power test is planned for 15 December 2008
- Next quadrature phase will start on 19 December 2008
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This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, MOR #158. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (bottom of this page) for terms of use.