Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission Daily & Weekly Report — Post-Launch
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MMS Weekly Updates
As of 07.09.2015
Mission Phase: Phase D-Commissioning
- MMS instruments have been activated and commissioning activities are resuming following exit of the long eclipse period.
- MMS successfully executed all procedures during the leap second event introduced on June 30.
- MMS completed a major milestone with the planned execution of maneuvers to start MMS formation flying in a 160 km spaced tetrahedron.
As of 06.25.2015
- MMS has exited the long eclipse period at apogee which extended thru June 21. Spacecraft power and thermal performance is well within predictions during the long shadows. Instrument commissioning activities were largely stood-down as planned during the eclipse period.
- MMS Instruments have been activated and commissioning activities are resuming.
As of 06.04.2015
- MMS is in the eclipse period which extends May 12 through June 21. Spacecraft power and thermal performance is well within predictions with no surprises during the long shadows.
- Instrument commissioning activities are stood-down as planned during the eclipse period.
As of 05.14.2015
- Commissioning continues on schedule.
- Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS) doors were successfully deployed on all observatories; all MMS deployment activities are now complete.
- All observatories were maneuvered back to mission attitude after Axial Double Probe (ADP) boom deployments.
- All instrument High Voltage activation operations were concluded in preparation for the eclipse period which extends May 12 through June 21.
- Navigator calibration commenced.
As of 05.08.2015
- Commissioning continues on schedule overall despite extensive replanning in the near-term to perform the maneuvers to warm the ADP booms prior to deployment.
- Spacecraft systems consume to meet or exceed their required performance specifications.
- As of early Friday morning May 8th all Axial Double Probe (ADP) booms are now successfully deployed!
- The MMS Observatories were maneuvered to tilt the ADP booms, both +Z and Z, 10 degrees toward the sun to raise the temperature of the booms prior top deployment. Verified the plans for these unplanned maneuvers over the last week.
- All MMS booms (SDP, ADP, MagBooms) are now deployed.
As of 04.30.2015
- Observatory #3 +Z ADP boom deployed without issue and subsequent ADP boom deployments on other observatories are planned to resume no later than May 3.
- The MMS constellation¹s orbit, spin rates and attitudes are nominal, all spacecraft systems and instruments are performing nominally.
- Spin-plane Double Probe (SDP) 60m wire boom deployments are complete on all observatories.
- MMS commissioning is planned to be completed on schedule
As of 04.16.2015
- MMS commissioning continues on schedule with no significant issues.
- The MMS constellation's orbit, spin rates and attitudes are nominal, all spacecraft systems are performing perfectly.
- The MMS FlatSat has been moved to the MOC and setup is in progress.
As of 04.09.2015
- MMS commissioning continues on schedule.
- The MMS constellation’s orbit, spin rates and attitudes are nominal.
- Spin rates are 6.9-7.3 rpm as a result of planned spin-up to deploy the Spin plane Double Probes (SDP) Thin-Wire sensors.
- All spacecraft subsystems are performing extremely well with no problems.
- Closed loop maneuvers performance continues to be exceptionally accurate.
- Power and Thermal systems are performing very well, increased power margin is now anticipated.
- SDP Booms deployed to 17m (of 60m) on 6 SDPs and 22m on 2 SDPs, as planned at this point.
- All instrument low voltage turn-ons successfully completed.
As of 04.02.2015
- The MMS constellation's orbit, spin rates and attitudes are nominal.
- All spacecraft subsystems are performing extremely well with no problems.
- Final perigee raising maneuvers were successfully performed.
- Low voltage checkout has now been completed on all MMS instruments.
- High Voltage (HV) activation of Fields Electron Drift Instruments (EDIs) nears completion, with all of EDI HV hardware functions checked out on all observatories.
As of 03.26.2015
- The MMS constellation's orbit, spin rates and attitudes are nominal.
- All spacecraft subsystems are performing extremely well with no problems.
- The second series of perigee raising maneuvers was successfully performed.
- The EIS instrument on MMS #1 is now turned on.
- MMS successfully utilized a USN ground network station on 3/26/2015 for the first time.
As of 03.19.2015
The four MMS Observatories launched on-time on 3.12.2015 at 10:44 pm EDT and were inserted with perfect accuracy and attitude into our initial orbit by the Atlas-Centaur AV-53. The separations and spin rates were exactly as planned. All spacecraft systems are operating nominally with no problems. The Navigator GPS system is exceeding its required performance, tracking more GPS vehicles at greater distances than the baseline mission required. This has potential benefits to the MMS science mission. During the past week attitude and spin rate maneuvers were performed as planned and the system performance (spin rate changes, nutation, damping) matched pre-flight predications extremely well. This indicates that the Observatory mass properties, spin- balancing, and control system design are all essentially perfect. The Instrument Suite command and control electronics were powered-on and are operating nominally with no significant problems, instrument activation is proceeding along the planned commissioning timeline. The 8 Axial Double Probe (ADP) Receiving Elements (RE) were successfully deployed although the ADP Booms remain stowed as planned. All 8 Magnetometer Booms were successfully deployed and the Magnetometers are performing nominally. The magnetometer data shows that the MMS Observatories achieved the desired level of magnetic cleanliness with the Observatories being nearly invisible to the deployed magnetometers.
MMS Operations Daily Reports
