Gene, Danny:

This is my recommendation for the MEX bistatic radar operation tomorrow
(Friday) evening.

This experiment gets a little intense toward the end; but it should be
simpler than the Venus experiments a week ago.  We'll go with the normal
25/100 kHz recording setup and use FRO's to chase the echoes at X-Band.  The
ground track is a long arc through northern Mars plains (and across the
Phoenix B proposed landing site).  The slant range drops to less than 600 km
at periapsis, and the incidence angles are in the 50-67 degree range.  Both
of these are very favorable for strong echoes; but Mars is at more than 2
A.U., so this will be another uphill battle to find well-spread surface
echoes in the background noise.

The spacecraft transmitters are turned off before the slew back to Earth
begins; so we can save a few minutes at the end by declaring an early EOT.

I have a flight scheduled to arrive at Burbank at 17:40 PDT; I'll probably
stop to get something to eat, which should still get me to JPL before the
pre-cal starts at 19:20 PDT.

Dick

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2006/175 (UTC)
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02:20  Begin Pre-cal at DSS 43
       FGAIN = 60 dB (all channels)
       FRO_X = 0; FRO_S = 0 (changes later)
       Start 4-channel 25 kHz recordings after Step 4
       Stop 25 kHz recording after Step 18

04:20  Begin track (spacecraft is 3-way X-Band with NNO; no S-Band)

04:36  S-TX ON (3-way)

04:50  Begin 4-channel 25 kHz recordings (SCHAN 3)

04:51  DL = S+X unmodulated, 1-way

05:20  Begin SLEW #1

05:25  SCHAN 3  (25 kHz):  FRO_X = +25000 Hz
                           FRO_S =  +3600 Hz
       SCHAN 4 (100 kHz):  FRO_X = +18000 Hz
                           FRO_S =      0 Hz

05:30  Begin MiniCal #1

05:45  End MiniCal #1 (end of Step 5)

05:50  Begin 4-channel 100 kHz recordings (SCHAN 4)

       End SLEW #1
       Begin BSR (expect LCP echoes stronger than RCP)

06:00  FRO_X = +31000 Hz (SCHAN 3; 25 kHz)

06:10  FRO_X = +37000 Hz (SCHAN 3; 25 kHz)

06:33  FRO_X = +25000 Hz (SCHAN 3; 25 kHz)

06:37  FRO_X = +14000 Hz (SCHAN 3; 25 kHz)

06:41  FRO_X =  +3000 Hz (SCHAN 3; 25 kHz)

       Approximately equal RCP and LCP echoes; over next 10
       minutes RCP should grow stronger, LCP weaker

06:45  FRO_X =  -7000 Hz (SCHAN 3; 25 kHz)

06:51  End BSR

       S-TX OFF
       X-TX OFF

       End 100 kHz recordings (SCHAN 4)

06:52  Begin MiniCal #2

07:03  End MiniCal #2 (end of Step 5)

07:04  All FRO = 0

07:05  End of track (15 minutes early)
       Begin Post-Cal

08:20  End Post-cal (if not before)
       End 25 kHz recordings
       End of Activity