| Date: | 2004-11-18 16:30:00 | |
| Sender: | Frank Lemoine, NASA GSFC <flemoine@bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov> | |
| Subject: | [SLR-Mail] No. 1278: TOPEX DORIS system failure | |
| Author: | Frank Lemoine, NASA GSFC | |
| Content: | ******************************************************************************** SLR Electronic Mail 2004-11-18 16:30:00 UTC Message No. 1278 ******************************************************************************** Author: Frank Lemoine, NASA GSFC Subject: TOPEX DORIS system failure Subject: DORIS and SLR Tracking for TOPEX/Poseidon. Subject: DORIS and SLR Tracking for TOPEX/Poseidon. Dear Colleagues, As announced in DORISMAIL message 0356, the TOPEX spacecraft lost its DORIS tracking on November 1, 2004 due to a microprocessor failure on board the satellite. The failure occurred in DORIS channel 2, which was activated in late 1998. Steps are underway to see if the DORIS channel 1 can be revived. Attempts to restart DORIS channel 2 were unsuccessful. For the short term at least, dense SLR tracking of TOPEX/Poseidon will be especially important, and we encourage stations to track the spacecraft whenever possible. TOPEX, a joint mission with NASA and the CNES, has been one of the most successful Earth science missions and continues to return highly valuable data. It´s success is due in no small part to the dedicated tracking provided by the international satellite laser ranging community over the past 12 years. For nearly two years now, TOPEX/Poseidon has been flying in an interleaved orbit with JASON-1, which allows much higher resolution mapping of oceanographic phenomena on shorter timescales. The NASA and the CNES thank you for your continued support of this mission. Kind regards, Frank Lemoine Space Geodesy Branch NASA Goddard Space Flight Center email: Frank.G.Lemoine@nasa.gov From: flemoine@bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov ******************************************************************************** |