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No. 183 - Mission Operations Report

No. 183 - Mission Operations Report

Report for Period 10 May to 16 May 2009The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week. The dual launch of Herschel and Planck on 14 May required the use of the Cebreros ground station for spacecraft communications during the missions' launch and early orbit phase. This has had an impact on a few communication passes for Venus Express, which are performed daily with the Cebreros ground station, shortening them by 2-3 hours.

The table below shows a chronology of the main activities:

MET
(Day)
Date DOY Main Activity
1279 10/05/09 130 Communications pass over Cebreros
1280 11/05/09 131 Communications pass over Cebreros. Telemetry bit rate changed from 76 kbps to 57 kbps
1281 12/05/09 132 Short communications pass due to Cebreros ground station maintenance
1282 13/05/09 133

Communications pass over Cebreros

1283 14/05/09 134

Cebreros communications pass shortened for Herschel and Planck launch campaign

1284 15/05/09 135

Cebreros communications pass shortened for Herschel and Planck launch campaign

1285 16/05/09 136

Cebreros communications pass shortened for Herschel and Planck launch campaign

At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 136) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 81 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 270 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
No measurements were taken during the reporting period.

VIRTIS
VIRTIS-M was operated in the visual channels only.

VMC
The instrument was regularly operated as part of the routine plan.

Future Milestones

  • Start of next (outbound) quadrature phase on 29 May 2009.
  • Swap of high gain antenna (HGA) from HGA2 to HGA1 on 8 June 2009.

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This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, MOR #183. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (bottom of this page) for terms of use.

Last Update: 1 September 2019
22-Dec-2024 06:20 UT

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