GALEX Current Status
| GALEX STATUS | |
| Spacecraft: Nominal | Instrument:
Engineers and scientists are continuing to work on the recovery of the far-ultraviolet instrument on NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. On May 29, the instrument experienced an overcurrent condition (too much current) and shut down. The project reviewed data from the incident and confirmed it had the same characteristics as three previous incidents occurring in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
The project is performing a series of actions to remove debris material believed to be causing the shorting condition from within the detector. The actions require multiple on-and-off cycling of the detector at various voltage levels, followed by an analysis of the results. The voltage and current settings are then adjusted, and the process is repeated. The project is looking for the optimum voltage level that produces a desired change in the detector current characteristics. This careful process takes time. Once that point. or voltage level, is determined, the detector will be operated at that level for extended time periods to facilitate removal of the material. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer's near-ultraviolet detector is working properly and is currently making science observations. The project plans to make up for lost observations with the far-ultraviolet detector when it resumes operations. |
GALEX Observation Schedule Details
** This page is under construction. This is a static demo. **
| Eclipse | Eclipse Start (UT) | Exposure [s] | Downlink [s] | NUV Count Rate [ph/s] | FUV Count Rate [ph/s] |
| 25934 | 2008-03-08 14:24:06 | 1635 | 0 | 83200 | 3550 |
| Survey | Observation Mode | Target ID | RA [deg] | DEC [deg] | |
| GII | imaging | GI3_050007_NGC5236 | 204.19814 | -29.878690 | |
The table above displays information about the science target GALEX is currently observing.
Orbit Information
(Click image for a full resolution version)
The top right panel shows the ground trace of the current GALEX orbit. The particle flux associated with the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is represented by the blue (=low) to red (=high) shading. The red line is the night (eclipse) side of the orbit, where GALEX makes observations, the day side is white. The high voltage supply on the detectors are not ramped until after exiting the SAA. The viewing cones of the two ground stations are also displayed. The position in the sky of the science target GALEX is observing (red *) is shown in the lower right panel. Regions of the sky too close to the Sun (yellow dots), the Earth (white dots) and the moon (green dots) for GALEX to observe are also displayed. The left hand panel displays information about the observation mode (imaging/grism/opaque) and the name and position of the science target (J2000 RA Dec). The timing of potential data downlnks is also given.
