Lunar Prospector Status Report #54

October 23, 1998 - 1:00 p.m. EST (10:00 a.m. PST)

The Lunar Prospector spacecraft continues to perform very well.

The transmitter continues to be cycled during occultations when the propellant tank heater is on. There were three commanding anomalies (twice on DOY 291 and once on 292) that caused a total of 43 mintes of data loss during the past week, all due to misconfigurations at the station. Communications procedures have been reviewed to reduce this problem in the future. There was two instances (DOY 290 and 292) when the off commands were not transmitted due to operator error, but there was no impact on the battery at either event. Transmitter commands were the only commanding activity this week.

Current spacecraft state (0000 GMT 10/23/98):

Orbit: 3463
Downlink: 3600 bps
Spin Rate: 12.00 rpm

Spin Axis Attitude (ecliptic):
Latitude:-89.1 deg
Longitude: 156 deg

Trajectory:
Periapsis Alt: 81.4 km
Apoapsis Alt: 118.6 km
Period: 118 min

Occultations: 42 minutes
Eclipses: 45 minutes
Propellant Remaining: 24.1 kg