Status, 6 January 2000, 5:00 PST
The Terra High Gain Antenna (HGA) remains turned off due to concerns about
the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). The earliest that the HGA will be turned
back on is Thursday, 13 January. A software patch is being developed to
operationally cycle the HGA off during passages through the SAA. This does
not mean that we will lose science data during this period since the data
are normally stored on the spacecraft solid-state recorder for later
transmission at the next TDRSS communications satellite contacts. Analysis
of the impact, if any, of this operating scenario on our overall science
data coverage has not yet been performed.
The 11-second-duration engineering test burn of the spacecraft propulsion
system, originally scheduled for today, has been postponed to Monday, 10
January. The first full burn to raise the orbit altitude is scheduled for
January 11 or 12, with the second, third, and fourth full burns planned for
January 18, 21, and 23. The 16 kilobit-per-second (kbps) capability of the
omnidirectional antenna will be used for spacecraft contacts during the
burn maneuvers (at least until the HGA is back on).
Detailed MISR instrument and camera telemetry is being obtained during 16
kbps contacts with Terra through the omni antenna, and all readings
continue to look very good. The optical bench and focal planes are running
at about 25 degrees Centigrade. This is providing a good bake-out of
contaminants.
You can see earlier status reports by checking the "News" link of the MISR
web site at http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov.
David Diner
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