Voyager Mission Operations Status Report # 2009-08-21,  Week Ending  August 21, 2009

 

Command Transmission & Verification Operations

 

Voyager 1 command operations consisted of the uplink of a Command Loss Timer Reset on 08/19 [DOY 231/2030z].  The transmission of the command was cancelled due to the release of the uplink station DSS-63 to support the MAP spacecraft.

 

Voyager 2 command operations consisted of the uplink of seven bracketed Command Loss Timer Resets sent on five-minute centers using 0.5 Hz steps on 08/20 [DOY 232/1337z].  The transmission of the commands was cancelled due to the release of the uplink station DSS-43 to support the MAP spacecraft.

 

Sequence Generation Operations

 

Continue sequence development of HPOINT Table update (part 2).

 

Data Return Operations

 

Voyager 1 Data Processing and Operations:

 

There were 80.8 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 1 of which 49.5 hours were large aperture coverage. There were three schedule support changes made.  The first change on 08/17 [DOY 229] substituted 7.0 hours of DSS-25 support for 7.5 hours of DSS-15 down due to a red sub reflector.  The second change on 08/19 [DOY 231] released 4.6 hours of DSS-63 support to MAP. The third change the next day on 08/20 [DOY 232] substituted 3.3 hours of DSS-25 and DSS-24 support for 8.5 hours of DSS-15 still down due to a red sub reflector.  The total actual support for the period was 70.5 hours of which 44.9 hours were large aperture coverage.  There were no significant outages during the period.

 

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period.  One frame of GS-4 data was recorded this week.  A second frame of GS-4 data was recorded on August 21.  The EDR backlog is 2 day.

 

Voyager 2 Data Processing and Operations:

 

There were 86.1 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 2 of which 32.5 hours were large aperture coverage. Two schedule changes were made both releasing station time to support MAP. The first change on 08/18 [DOY 230] substituted 1.9 hours of DSS-45 for 2.3 hours of DSS-43support.  The second change on 08/20 [DOY 232]  released 3.3 hours of DSS-43 support.  The total actual support was 82.4 hours of which 26.9 hours were large aperture coverage. 

 

There were two significant outages during the period.  The first outage of 0.6 hours on 08/16 [DOY 228] was caused by a TLP problem at DSS-43 [DR C107044].  The second outage of 0.9 hours occurred on 08/21 [DOY 233] and resulted from rain at DSS-45 [DR C107051].

 

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period.  The EDR backlog is 2 days.

 

 

Flight System Performance

 

Voyager 1 performance was nominal during this report period.  Activities included DTR Maintenance and a PMPCAL on 8/18  (DOY 230 & 231).

 

Voyager 2 performance was nominal during this report period.

 

PROPELLANT/POWER CONSUMABLES STATUS AS OF THIS REPORT

 

 

Spacecraft

Consumption

One Week (Gm)

Propellant

Remaining (Kg)

Output

(Watts)

Margin

(Watts)

1

5.00

26.55

276.8

35

2

5.95

28.24

278.1

32

 

 

RANGE, VELOCITY AND ROUND TRIP LIGHT TIME AS OF 8/21/2009

 

 

Voyager 1

Voyager 2

Distance from the Sun (Km)

16,589,000,000

13,447,000,000

Distance from the Sun (Mi)

10,306,000,000

8,356,000,000

Distance from the Earth (Km)

16,551,000,000

13,349,000,000

Distance from the Earth (Mi)

10,285,000,000

8,295,000,000

Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Km)

21,189,000,000

20,170,000,000

Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Mi)

13,166,000,000

12,533,000,000

Velocity Relative to Sun  (Km/sec)

17.081

15.503

Velocity Relative to Sun  (Mi/hr)

38,208

34,678

Velocity Relative to Earth  (Km/sec)

43.756

38.142

Velocity Relative to Earth  (Mi/hr)

97,880

85,322

Round Trip Light Time (hh:mm:ss)

30:39:36

24:44:14