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| No. 149 - Start of Eclipse Season |
Report for Period 14 September to 20 September 2008 Nominal Venus Express mission operations were conducted during the reporting period. The eclipse season started with the spacecraft passing daily through Venus's shadow from 19 September onward. During these brief daily eclipses the solar arrays are not illuminated by the Sun's light. |
| Date: 26 Sep 2008 |
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| No. 105 - Gravitational Microlensing Observations |
Report for Period 6 September to 19 September 2008 The reporting period covers the two weeks of post-asteroid fly-by activities mainly dedicated to the downlink of science data. All science data acquired during the asteroid fly-by phase have been successfully retrieved on ground and operations are now continuing with the OSIRIS observations of gravitational microlensing events.
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| Date: 23 Sep 2008 |
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| No. 148 - Routine Operations |
Report for Period 7 September to 13 September 2008 Nominal Venus Express mission operations were conducted during the reporting period. |
| Date: 17 Sep 2008 |
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| No. 147 - Routine Operations |
Report for Period 31 August to 6 September 2008 Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. An orbit control manoeuvre (OCM) was successfully completed on 31 August (DoY 244). The manoeuvre constituted a phase correction, intended to keep the phasing of Venus Express in its orbit in sync with mission operations from ground. The downlink window with the Cebreros ground station needs to be kept in a certain time window.
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| Date: 10 Sep 2008 |
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| No. 104 - Asteroid Steins Flyby |
Report for Period 30 August to 5 September 2008 The reporting period was characterised by the final navigation of Rosetta towards asteroid Steins, culminating in the successful flyby on the evening of 5 September 2008 at 18:38 UTC (the exact time of closest approach to be confirmed after detailed analysis of telemetry data). The navigation was completed with a trajectory control manoeuvre (TCM) executed at about 36 hours before the closest approach (CA). |
| Date: 10 Sep 2008 |
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| No. 146 - Outcome of Atmospheric Drag Experiment |
Report for Period 24 August to 30 August 2008 Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. The atmospheric drag experiment measurement passes associated with the pericentre altitude lowering campaign have now concluded. |
| Date: 02 Sep 2008 |
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| No. 103 - Closing in on Asteroid Steins |
Report for Period 16 August to 29 August 2008
Operations during the two weeks covered in this report focused on the refinement of the orbit determination process in the frame of the asteroid fly-by operations. Rosetta is now permanently pointing to asteroid Steins with occasional re-pointings required for instruments calibrations in preparation of the fly-by. Navigation images of asteroid Steins are taken daily with the spacecraft navigation cameras and the narrow angle camera of the OSIRIS instrument.
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| Date: 02 Sep 2008 |
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