ESA Science & Technology - Status Report Archive
Status report archive
Status report archive
On 19 September 2004, at a distance of 1500 million kilometres (over 80 light minutes) from Earth, Huygens took another small but extremely important step towards achieving its ultimate goal: to probe the atmosphere of Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons and the second largest in the solar system.
Published: 23 September 2004
Report for week 10 to 17 September 2004In the reporting period the payload commissioning activities continued, with the first part of the Pointing Scenario, covering two days of VIRTIS operations with MIRO, MIDAS and RSI activities, the final MIDAS functional commissioning and the start of the OSIRIS functional commissioning. All activities have...
Published: 22 September 2004
The fifteenth Probe In-Flight Checkout was successfully executed on Tuesday 14 September 2004. As it is the last but one in-flight checkout planned before separation, it included some specific activities that are intended to prepare for Probe separation around Christmas this year.
Published: 17 September 2004
Report for week 3 to 10 September 2004In the reporting period daily contact with the spacecraft was established to allow the completion of payload software updates and the start of the second and last part of the Commissioning Phase.
Published: 13 September 2004
Report for fortnight 20 August to 3 SeptemberIn the first week of the reporting period the spacecraft was monitored only with a single New Norcia pass, during which a HGA pattern calibration test was carried out. In the second week all New Norcia passes (except for one) and one DSN pass were taken, to allow the start of the preparatory...
Published: 6 September 2004
Overall Mission and Payload StatusThe commanding of the Mars Express routine science operations through the Payload Operations Service at RAL in the UK is proceeding well, and the corresponding planning is being performed about 10 weeks ahead of the execution of scientific activities. Currently the achieved planning covers the scientific...
Published: 2 September 2004
On 19 August 17:56 UTC, while at apogee, SMART-1 had its first encounter with the Moon. The spacecraft was approximately 197 000 km from the Moon and 230 000 km from Earth. SMART-1 was still completely within the Earth's sphere of influence, due to the much larger mass of the Earth, despite the fact that it was closer to the Moon. However, the...
Published: 27 August 2004
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has successfully performed its scheduled Periapsis Raising Manoeuvre (PRM). A 51 minute burn of the primary engine corrected the spacecraft trajectory to place it on a course to encounter Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in October. The manoeuvre also raised the periapsis (point of closest approach to Saturn) by over...
Published: 23 August 2004
Report for fortnight 6 to 20 AugustIn the reporting period the spacecraft was monitored weekly, mainly to dump the telemetry stored on-board. During the last weekly pass, the LGA threshold test first attempted on 1 June 2004 was repeated successfully (see report No. 15).
Published: 23 August 2004
The spacecraft is now into its 321st orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. The current thrusting strategy is progressing well and one of the longest thrust arcs took place on 9 August at 22:14 for 56.7 hours. The next arc started on 14 August and will last for 39 hours. The thrust strategy has recently been...
Published: 16 August 2004
Report for week 30 July to 6 August 2004In the reporting period the spacecraft was monitored daily (with the exception of two passes) to complete the upload and verification of version 7 of the on-board software. Following the monitoring of the previous week the go ahead for finalization of v7 installation was given on 2 August. From now on the...
Published: 9 August 2004
Report for week 23 July to 30 July 2004In the reporting period the spacecraft was monitored daily to ensure the correct behaviour of its avionics systems after the upload and activation of the new version 7 of the on-board software.
Published: 2 August 2004
Report for week 16 to 23 July 2004In the reporting period the uplink and activation of the new avionics on-board software (version 7) has been carried out, probably the most critical operation since launch. The work of this week successfully concluded a four-months period of intense system testing at ESOC, which had followed the development and...
Published: 26 July 2004
Report for week 9 to 16 July 2004The reporting period covers the sixth week of Cruise 1. The spacecraft is configured for cruise and the payload is off. The main activities of this week covered the preparation for uplink and activation of the Avionics On-Board Software version 7.
Published: 21 July 2004
The spacecraft is now flying its 314th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. The new thrusting strategy is well in progress with thrust arcs around perigee for about one third of every revolution. Presently the thrust arcs last for about 27 hours out of an orbital period of 81 hours. The thrust duration will...
Published: 15 July 2004
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft emerged from behind the Sun today after being in solar conjunction since 5 July. The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Deep Space Network's Goldstone tracking station near Barstow, California, today. The spacecraft is in excellent health and operating normally.
Published: 12 July 2004
Report for week 2 July to 9 July 2004The reporting period covers the fifth week of Cruise 1. The spacecraft is configured for cruise and the payload is off.
Published: 12 July 2004
Report for week 25 June to 2 July 2004The reporting period covers the fourth week of Cruise 1, in which for the first time no test, maintenance or characterization activity was planned. The spacecraft is configured for quiet cruise and the payload is off.
Published: 5 July 2004
Overall Mission StatusMars Express spacecraft and science operations are proceeding well. The Commissioning Results Review was held on 3 June 2004 and concluded the Mars Commissioning phase. The Mars Express mission has subsequently entered the routine phase of its science operations.
Published: 2 July 2004
The spacecraft is now flying its 310th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. The new thrusting strategy is well in progress with thrust arcs around perigee for about one third of every revolution. Presently the thrust arcs last for about 21 hours out of a 68 hours orbital period. The thrust duration will...
Published: 2 July 2004
—
20 Items per Page