http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=34968

Rosetta
European Space Agency
April 26, 2004
Report for week 16 to 23 April 2004

Payload commissioning activities continued in the reporting period. The main activity was the completion of the second ALICE commissioning slot. In support of the ALICE high voltage operations the ROSINA COPS pressure monitor was active for most of the time.

All activities were successfully executed, but some delays were accumulated due to the fact that the prime pyro firing to open the ALICE detector door did not work (DOY 108) and an investigation was conducted before the redundant pyro could be fired. This activity took place successfully on DOY 112 and the detector door confirmed open. As a result of the delay, the final ALICE Payload Aliveness Test, originally scheduled for this slot, was postponed to DOY 115. This does not have any impact on the rest of the commissioning schedule since the pass on DOY 115 was scheduled to be a passive telemetry dump pass.

On the subsystem side no special activity was performed. Close monitoring of the thermal environment continues, but the temperatures were very stable throughout the week, including in the new inertial pointing attitude required by ALICE. http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=34987

SMART-1
European Space Agency
April 28, 2004

2000 hours of electric propulsion operations

The spacecraft is now in its 278th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. The new thrusting strategy is well in progress with thrust arcs around perigee for about one third of every revolution. Presently the thrust arcs last for about 13 hours of every 36 hour-orbit. The thrust duration will increase to 18 hours when the orbital period reaches about 50 hours in one and half month.

In this phase of the mission, the electric propulsion system is again at the centre of our attention, as the main purpose is now to increase the apogee of the orbit to get closer to the Moon. The performance of the engine is still very good. At 16 April 2004, the engine had cumulated a total ON time of about 2000 hours, consumed about 32 kg of Xenon and imparted to the spacecraft a velocity increment of about 1440 ms-1.