No. 187 - High Gain Antenna Swap
The HGA swap and the attitude flip were performed as part of the current quadrature operations: the spacecraft entered an outbound quadrature phase on 29 May, and this phase will last until 3 July 2009. Quadrature phases occur regularly and are defined by the periods in the orbit of the planet Venus during which the Sun-spacecraft-Earth angle is between 75° and 95°.
The HGA1 will be used from now up to the mission's next (inbound) quadrature phase, when the swap back to HGA2 will be performed, in about 14 months time.
The table below shows a chronology of the main activities:
| MET (Day) |
Date | DOY | Main Activity |
| 1307 | 07/06/09 | 158 |
Communications pass over Cebreros |
| 1308 | 08/06/09 | 159 |
Telemetry bit rate changed from 28 kbps to 228 kbps, consistent with the HGA swap. |
| 1309 | 09/06/09 | 160 |
Communications pass over Cebreros |
| 1310 | 10/06/09 | 161 |
Communications pass over Cebreros |
| 1311 | 11/06/09 | 162 |
Communications pass over Cebreros |
| 1312 | 12/06/09 | 163 |
Pass skipped |
| 1313 | 13/06/09 | 164 |
Communications pass over Cebreros |
At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 164) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 114.34 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 381 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
- End of current outbound quadrature phase: 3 July 2009
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Legal disclaimer
This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, MOR #187. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (bottom of this page) for terms of use.