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    No. 170 - Commissioning of RCS B branch

    18 Feb 2009 11:01

    Report for Period 8 February to 14 february 2009

    The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week. The commissioning of the B branch of the Reaction Control Subsystem (RCS) on 12 February 2009 has been successful.

    The firing of all RCS B-side thrusters during reaction wheel off-loadings used for validation was confirmed and the performance was exactly as predicted.

    The table below shows a chronology of the main activities:

    MET (Day) Date DOY Main Activity
    1188 08/02/09 039

    Communications pass over Cebreros

    1189 09/02/09 040

    Communications pass over Cebreros.
    Telemetry bitrate changed to 76 kbps

    1190 09/02/09 041

    Communications pass over Cebreros

    1191 10/02/09 042

    Communications pass over Cebreros

    1192 12/02/09 043

    Communications pass over Cebreros.
    RCS B branch commissioning

    1193 13/02/09 044

    Communications pass over Cebreros

    1194 14/02/09 045

    Communications pass over Cebreros

    At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 045) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 68.6 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 230 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 was operated in the visual channels only.

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

    Future Milestones

    • The third test of the VIRTIS M-cooler is planned for 20 February 2009.
    • Preparation for next gravity observation campaign with the Canberra ground station CAN43 on 15 April 2009.
    • Battery Deep Discharge Test is planned for 22 April 2009.
    • Start of next (outbound) quadrature phase on 29 May 2009.
    • Swap of high gain antenna (HGA) from HGA2 to HGA1 on 8 June 2009.

    ---
    Legal disclaimer
    This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, MOR #170. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (bottom of this page) for terms of use.


    Last Update: 26 Feb 2009

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