Thursday, April 12, 2018

STEREO-A

 2006-047A


Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, part of the NASA STP (Solar Terrestrial Probe) Program. Study coronal mass ejections with spacecraft at Earth-Sun L4 and L5. Spacecraft built by JHU/APL, control and management by GSFC.

Stereo-A (Ahead) will go to the leading point.

Stereo-A and B (Behind) drift +/- 22 deg per year relative to Earth. Lap the Earth after 16 years.

Launch by Delta 7925-10L.

Mass 620 kg full with 62 kg of prop (confirmed 62 kg on day 2). Size 1.14m high x 4.0m wide x 2.0m deep, 6.5m span across two solar panels. (or 610 kg full 547 kg dry) Size 1.1 x 2.0 x 1.2m stowed; 1.1 x 2.0 x 6.5m span.

Total launch mass 1285 kg.

625 kg A, 660 kg B?

At launch, Ahead is above Behind, Behind is on top of stage 3.

SWAVES will map the radio emissions from shocks in the CMEs.

Interview with Mike Kaiser, 2006 Dec 1.

Ahead has done all its TCMs; ready to open cover and take pics.

HI integrates for about 1 hr; white light CCD.

Plastic mostly does composition of heavies; Impact suite does mag, particles, LE/HE. S/Waves (STEREO WAVES) is a follow on to WIND WAVES and is the same as Cassini's radio experiment.

SWAVES sees lots of Type III (Flare bursts) and the more interesting Type II (CME shock waves).

CMEs: faster CMEs make bigger shock waves, more radio. swaves watches them drift in time, back out the speed and strength using a model. For public, use audio rendition.

The idea for STEREO was from GSFC's Joe Davila, who was its first project scientist. In the late 1990s, a study committee including Mike Kaiser, Dick Fisher and APL's Dave Rust developed the idea and in 1999 NASA announced a competition for STEREO's instruments. APL and GSFC, having pushed the project in the first place, assigned themselves the spacecraft and the science center respectively. Flight  control is also at APL. With the support of Md senator Mikulski, STEREO became a reality. Joe Davila stepped down from the STEREO lead role to work on an Explorer study which ultimately didn't go forward; Mike Kaiser then became the project scientist. Davila continued to work on the inner coronagraph on SECCHI.

After 5 years in space, STEREO will be too far around to continue operations. It takes 16 years for a full lap.

Following an accident at the age of 2, Mike is blind in one eye and so has no stereo vision himself!

In Feb the first image of the 0-1AU solar system will be taken. In April, the spacecraft are far enough apart to take their first stereo image. The Acapulco AGU meeting in May will see initial results.


STEREO A 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

2006 Oct 26  0052:00 Launch by Delta 7925-10L CC SLC17B 
  T+1:03 SRM 1-6 sep 
  T+1:06 SRM 7-9 on 
  T+1:06 SRM 1-6 sep 
  T+2:09 SRM 7-9 out 
  T+2:11 SRM 7-9 sep 
  T+4:26 MECO 
 0056:34 T+4:34 Stage 1 sep 
  T+4:40 SEIG-1 
  T+4:44 Fairing  
 0102:10 T+10:10 SECO-1  165 x 171 x 28.5  
 0107:37 T+15:37 SEIG-2 98s 
 0109:44 T+17:44 SECO-2  166.2 x 3178.8 x 28.49  
  Spinup  
 0109:58 T+17:58 Stage 2 sep 
 0110:35 T+18:35 TES 
 0112:04 T+20:04 TECO 
 0117:00 T+25:00 Yoyo weights sep 
 0117:05 T+25:05 TES+386s Stereo-A/B sep from stage 3  
  T+25:58 Insertion: 959 km at 10.335 km/s C3 = -1.8351 km2/s2 x 28.46 
 0119:00  Stereo-A sep from Stereo-B  172 x 322223 - 484483 x 28.5  
  (Horizons)  182 x 403810 x 28.45  
 0121? Begin solar panel deploy 
 0205  B (Behind) detumble 
 0210  A (Ahead) detumble 
 0219  SEIG-3 depletion 
 0219 SECO-3  184 x 3154 x 24.6 
 1609  Pass EL1:4 
2006 Oct 28  1330 A E1 TCM cal 9s 0.2m/s  -200 x 408000?  
2006 Oct 30  1800 A A1 TCM Perigee adjust 9.6m/s 3.5kg 9min  504 x 408000? 
2006 Oct 31  1639  Apogee 1, 411554 km  
2006 Nov 2  1800 A E2 TCM EngBurn2 calibration 0.2m/s 
2006 Nov 6  0908:37  A Perigee 1  504 x 408870  
2006 Nov 11  2346  Apogee 2 408870 km  
2006 Nov 14  1400  A TCM-A2+ 40min, 46m/s 
2006 Nov 17  1256:00  A TCM-P2 4:00 2.7 m/s 
2006 Nov 17  1343  Perigee 2, 1898 km  
2006 Nov 23  1624  Apogee 3 432551 km  
2006 Nov 29  1958  Perigee 3, 4425 km  
2006 Dec 6  0208  Apogee 4, 435833 km 
2006 Dec 12  0830:31  A perigee 6668 km 
2006 Dec 15  0435  Enter L sphere 
2006 Dec 15  2128:02  STEREO A S1 flyby, C/A 7359 km; 5937 km alt (5604 km)  5937 x -21295 x 24.22  
2006 Dec 16  1423  Depart L sphere 
2007 Jan 27  2210  Depart Earth sphere 
2008 Jan 1   STEREO A  344.02d 0.9539AU x 0.9678AU x 0.12 
2015 Mar 24   Safemode prior to superior solar conjunction 
2015 Jul 8   Begin returning to ops 

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