baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) (02/07/91)
MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
February 6, 1991
The Magellan spacecraft and its radar system are performing
normally. All star calibrations and momentum wheel desaturations
of the past 24 hours were successful with very slight attitude
updates.
Temperatures of several spacecraft subsystems have been near
their alarm limits because the spacecraft is now getting more
direct sunlight that it did earlier in the mission. The
temperatures are being monitored closely and plans are being made
to turn the spacecraft periodically to get all parts of it in the
shade at various times.
The new command sequence was successfully sent to the
spacecraft late Tuesday, and it began execution today.
Project Manager Tony Spear announced a new program to
systematically remove sources of commanding errors while making
the uplink system run faster and more efficiently. Spear said the
program is "simply a desire to do better. We want to learn from,
and correct, our mistakes."
Since launch, he said, the project has made 18 command
errors in 199,406 commands, about 9 command errors per 100,000.
He defined a command error as an inappropriate and unplanned
spacecraft event caused by a command. Benefits of the program should
include lower mission operating costs, he said.
___ _____ ___
/_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov
| | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab |
___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ M/S 301-355 | It's 10PM, do you know
/___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | where your spacecraft is?
|_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | We do!