ROSAT Guest Observer Facility

ROSAT Status Report #72:

Nov 24, 1993


As of Friday November 26 MPE will try to operate ROSAT again. At the moment, ROSAT is stably pointing near the NEP with the PSPC turned off. A software problem has been recognized, which prevents feedback from the magnetometer to the AMCS. Therefore, if an earthblock occurs on the night side, no attitude control in the Z-direction is possible. Drifts of up to 8 degrees were observed, which may lead to sun constraint violations (and hence safe mode) if targets with larger sun angles are observed. However, guarded optimism applies for observations of targets near the center of the sun cone. Even with an 8 degree drift during a nightside earthblock, the sun constraint should not be violated for such targets once the earthblock is over. MPE will therefore prepare a timeline for the time between Friday and Monday containing only targets within 4 degrees of the sun cone. Starting Monday, Nov 29 MPE will try to run the regular timeline. since ROSAT will be in a full sun orbit condition. The operations after Dec 6, when ROSAT enters the earth's shadow again are unclear and will be decided upon early next week.

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This file was last modified on Tuesday, 14-Sep-1999 11:47:03 EDT

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