MCST

At the two links below, you can find the latest information on the timelines of the Terra and Aqua Constellation exits.

Terra: https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/individual.php?news_id=100378

Aqua: https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/individual.php?news_id=100389

On February 22, 2022 (2022/053), Aqua FOT reported data losses occuring at regular intervals from MODIS and AIRS science data. The data errors were determined to be due to the solid-state recorder (SSR) where a particular area of memory had failed. The recovery of operations involved marking the area in memory as unusable and resetting the SSR and Formatter/Multiplexer Unit (FMU). The reset was performed on March 23, 2022 and MODIS returned to nominal operation later that day (2022/082 19:47:31).

The MODIS instrument onboard the Terra spacecraft reported a reset of its command and format processors on March 15, 2022 (2022/074 @08:54z). Analysis has shown this was a single-event upset (SEU). The recovery efforts included uploading several patches to the MODIS formatter to return the instrument to its pre-reset configuration. The required patches were uploaded from March 15-17th. As of March 17, 2022 (2022/076 @02:19:04) MODIS was restored to its nominal configuration.

The commanded pitch of the Aqua spacecraft to allow for a deep space calibration including the Moon was completed on September 24, 2021. The MODIS instrument successfully viewed the moon through its earth view (EV) port. MCST monitored the instrument health throughout the maneuver and continues to monitor telemetry. Analysis of the calibration is ongoing.

Terra flight operations successfully reset the spacecraft solid state recorder (SSR) on September 22, 2021. Among other benefits, this reset returns the Terra MODIS onboard data storage to its full capacity. For more information see the article on the NASA EOS Terra website here.