Terra Mission Status Update

Update Archive

July 14 - July 20, 2006

The first of four ASTER Direct Downlink (DDL) tests was conducted on Monday, July 17. The ESMO Flight Operations Team (FOT) successfully enabled the downlink of real time ASTER data on the Q channel which is nominally used for downlinking MODIS data. MODIS data was downlinked on the I channel. Preliminary analysis of the test results indicate that the ASTER DDL data was successfully captured at the EROS ground station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. However, EROS had problems processing the data; they are investigating the Viterbi decoding function. The 3 MODIS Direct Broadcast stations (GSFC , Univ of Wisconsin, and the Univ of Texas) were successfully captured the data with smaller antennae and processed it to Level 1. The DDL test team will telecon on Thursday, July 20 to discuss the results and the schedule for the next test, currently scheduled for August 2.

Terra spacecraft subsystems and instruments remain nominal.

Terra Automation Working Group met this week and continues progress on the new system.

ESMO is coordinating an ASTER Direct Downlink (DDL) Test Plan Working Group.