K3PGP Experimenter's Corner
Lunar Prospector Status Report #18
Februrary 9, 1998 - 12:00 noon EST (3:00 p.m. PST)
The Lunar Prospector Mission Control Center at NASA's Ames Research Center reported that, as of 8:21 p.m. (PST) on Sat., Jan. 31, 1998, the spacecraft continues to operate well. The past weekend, a minor glitch with the spectrometer instrument electronics occurred, in which the incoming data stream for the vehicle's three spectrometers was temporarily halted. Mission controllers decided to power the spectrometer electronics subsystem on and off, which corrected the problem. All instruments were reconfigured and reported to be operating properly. A total of 38 commands were communicated to the spacecraft to resolve this situation.
Current statistics regarding the spacecraft and its instruments, as reported by Mission Operations Manager Marcie Smith (at 10:00 a.m. (PST) on Feb. 2, 1998) are as follows:
| Orbit Number: | 256 | ||
| Data Downlink Rate: | 3600 bps | ||
| Spacecraft Spin Rate: | 11.94 rpm | ||
| Spin Axis Attitude: | Longitude: 251 deg Latitude: 89.2 deg |
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| Trajectory: | Periselene: | 96 km Aposelene: |
104 km |
| Period: | 118 minutes duration | ||
| Occultations: | 46 minutes duration | ||
| Eclipses: | 32 minutes duration |
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