magellan update forwarded from doug griffith magellan project manager magellan status report april the magellan spacecraft continues to operate normally gathering gravity data to plot the density variations of venus in the mid latitudes the solar panel offpoint was returned to zero degrees and spacecraft temperatures dropped degrees c an end to end test of the delayed aerobraking data readout process was conducted this week in preparation for the transition experiment there was some difficulty locking up to the data frames and engineers are presently checking whether the problem was in equipment at the tracking station magellan has completed orbits of venus and is now days from the end of cycle and the start of the transition experiment magellan scientists were participating in the brown vernadsky microsymposium at brown university in providence ri this week this joint meeting of u s and russian venus researchers has been continuing for many years a three day simulation of transition experiment aerobraking activities is planned for next week including orbit trim maneuvers and starcal star calibration orbits ron baalke baalke kelvin jpl nasa gov jet propulsion lab m s telos the aweto from new zealand pasadena ca is part caterpillar and part vegetable
