Voyager Mission Operations Status Report # 2012-09-21, Week Ending September 21, 2012

 

Command Transmission & Verification Operations

 

Voyager 1 command operations consisted of the uplink of a Command Loss Timer Reset on 09/20 [DOY 264/2010z].  The spacecraft received the command.

 

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 09/18 [DOY 262/1617z].  The spacecraft received two of the seven commands sent.

 

Sequence Generation Operations

 

 

Data Return Operations

 

Voyager 1 Data Processing and Operations:

 

There were 53.3 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 1 of which 50.0 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made during the period.

 

There were two significant outages both due to sub reflector problems at DSS-14.  The first outage of 0.8 hours occurred on 09/17 [DOY 261, DR G113229].  The second outage of 1.7 hours occurred the next day on 09/18 [DOY 262, DR G113231].

 

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 September 15.  The EDR backlog is 9 days.

 

 

Voyager 2 Data Processing and Operations:

 

There were 39.1 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 2 of which 13.6 hours were large aperture coverage.  There were no real-time or schedule support changes made or significant outages during the period.

 

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period.  The EDR backlog is 9 days.

 

 

Flight System Performance

 

Voyager 1 performance was nominal during this report period.  Activities included X-Band high power/MAGROL/Gyros BC OFF/X-Band low power on 9/19 (DOY263/264).

 

Voyager 2 performance was nominal during this report period.  Activity included a PMPCAL on 9/18  (DOY 263).

 

PROPELLANT/POWER CONSUMABLES STATUS AS OF THIS REPORT

 

 

Spacecraft

Consumption

One Week (Gm)

Propellant

Remaining (Kg)

Output

(Watts)

Margin

(Watts)

1

46.54*

26.27

264.0

17

2

56.62**

26.63

265.1

22

                                                            *MAGROL 2012-264/2143                            **MAGROL 2012-259/0753

 

RANGE, VELOCITY AND ROUND TRIP LIGHT TIME AS OF THIS REPORT

 

 

Voyager 1

Voyager 2

Distance from the Sun (Km)

18,239,000,000

14,904,000,000

Distance from the Sun (Mi)

11,333,000,000

9,261,000,000

Distance from the Earth (Km)

18,268,000,000

14,860,000,000

Distance from the Earth (Mi)

11,351,000,000

9,234,000,000

Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Km)

24,446,000,000

23,388,000,000

Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Mi)

15,190,000,000

14,533,000,000

Velocity Relative to Sun  (Km/sec)

17.044

15.438

Velocity Relative to Sun  (Mi/hr)

38,126

34,532

Velocity Relative to Earth  (Km/sec)

44.575

40.954

Velocity Relative to Earth  (Mi/hr)

99,711

91,610

Round Trip Light Time (hh:mm:ss)

33:50:24

27:32:18