No. 146 - End of solar conjunction19 Nov 2010 14:05 Report for the period 23 October to 14 November 2010 This report covers 23 days of Rosetta mission operations. During the reporting period the spacecraft has moved out of solar conjunction and is now configured in active cruise mode in preparation of the final payload checkout and the first rendezvous manoeuvre. The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) provided additional support to the radio science investigations during this phase.
During the reporting period, mission operations were conducted using the ESA New Norcia (NNO) ground station and the DSS-24 (Goldstone, 34 metres), DSS-54 (Madrid, 34 metres) and DSS-65 (Madrid, 34 metres) NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas.
At the end of the reporting period on 14 November, Rosetta was 655 million km from Earth (4.44 AU); the one-way signal travel time was 36 min 58 sec (2218 sec). The spacecraft's distance from the Sun was 528.6 million km (3.53 AU). Also on 14 November, Rosetta reached its maximum distance from Earth so far (4.44 AU). Due to the movement of Earth around the Sun, the spacecraft-Earth distance will now decrease to 3.29 AU on 19 April 2011; it will increase again afterwards and break the current record at the end of July 2011. SpacecraftAttitude and orbit control system
Special eventsThe Hibernation Readiness Review was held on 5 November as planned. The board declared all the objectives of the review successful pending the implementation of a few recommendations and actions. Future milestonesThe plan for the payload checkout is as follows:
The activities scheduled for the OSIRIS instrument have been postponed until the conclusion of the relevant Material Review Board (MRB) is available. The instrument will be activated after the first rendezvous manoeuvre, at a time compatible with the spacecraft operations plan. The first rendezvous manoeuvre is planned for the second half of January 2011, with the first burn leg on 17 January. Due to its magnitude, this manoeuvre has been split into five nominal burns plus an optional extra one in the event that a final correction is needed. ---
Last Update: 05 Mar 2012
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