MARS SURVEYOR 98 MISSION STATUSFebruary 6, 1999
The spacecraft is operating nominally, with little planned activity (for either spacecraft) during the past week due to Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) aerobraking walkout operations and the impending launch of Stardust. Earlier this week some unusual behavior was noted in the ring-laser gyro electronics within Inertial Measurement Unit "A." Recorded telemetry from the past two weeks indicated several instances in which the laser intensity monitor (LIM) current on different gyro axes exhibited unusual, temporary increases in noise levels. Additional telemetry data stored within IMU-A since launch were downlinked later in the week for further analysis. An investigation has been initiated. On Thursday, Feb. 4, the Pressure Modulator Infrared Radiometer (PMIRR) was powered on for a second diagnostic check. Telemetry returned from the instrument confirmed it was in a nominal state, and that the cooler door was in the correct position following its commanded deployment on Dec. 23 of last year. The lander is also performing well. This morning a new set of configuration files containing updated default atittude information (for use by the fault protection system in the event of a safe mode entry) were successfully transmitted to the spacecraft. Ground station coverage was reduced to one tracking pass per day, as planned, now that the first month of flight has been completed.
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