12 Mar 2008 09:34

The team's work was focused on completing the reports for the Mars Express/Venus Express Mission Extension Operations Review planned for 11 March.

The technical details for the battery deep discharge testing are being worked on as well. The target is to perform the test in April.

The table below shows a chronology of the main activities in the reporting period:

At the end of the last Cebreros pass in the reporting period (DOY 068) Venus Express was orbiting Venus at 226.7 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal travel time was 760 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
Two occultation passes took place with New Norcia (DOY 063 and 064) and were nominally completed.

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

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

Future Milestones

• Battery deep discharge test planned on 22 April
• Technical note about pericentre reduction operations released
• New on-board control procedure for the disabling of virtual channel zero (VC0) routing outside visibility. VC0 is used for spacecraft housekeeping telemetry
• Release of the HGA-1 S-band anomaly report
• Technical note about operations planning for solar conjunction released
• Mission Extension Operations Review on 11 March at ESOC

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Legal disclaimer
This report is based on the ESOC mission operations report, MOR #121. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (bottom of this page) for terms of use.