Cassini Update - October 8, 2004

Cassini Significant Events
for 09/30/04 - 10/06/04

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking
station on Wednesday, October 6. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent
state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present
position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present
Position" web page located at
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operation...t-position.cfm .

This week, the Spacecraft Operations Office performed a checkout of the
updated version of the Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) flight software.
ACS version A8.7.1 prepares Cassini for Huygens Probe release on December
24, 2004 and the remainder of tour operations. The checkout was a simulated
probe release using the spun-up reaction wheels to impart a torque for the
thruster system to respond to. Both ACS computers are now up and running on
A8.7.1.

After the checkout was successfully completed, a science mini-sequence was
uplinked and began execution to continue S04 on-going observational
campaigns. This included movies looking for spoke formations in Saturn's
rings, ultraviolet imaging of Saturn's magnetosphere, and solar wind
measurements by the Magnetospheric and Plasma Science (MAPS) instruments.

An update to the Cassini reference trajectory was released on Monday,
October 4. This reference trajectory, labeled 041001, increases the accuracy
with which the Huygens probe will be delivered to Titan, and incorporates
updated orbiter and major satellite ephemerides. The major changes from the
previous reference trajectory are a decrease in the altitude of the second
Titan flyby (Tb) from 2200 km to 1200 km, and an increase in the fourth
Titan flyby (T3) from 1000 km to 1577 km. The improved satellite
ephemerides resulted in small changes to the timing of events such as Titan
flybys and Saturn periapses.

A meeting was hosted by Uplink Operations to discuss the timeline for a one
day Live Update for the Iapetus distant flyby during S04. A decision was
reached to proceed with implementation of the update.

S05 is currently going through the Science and Sequence Update Process
(SSUP) and will be completed on October 15. The release of the new
reference trajectory has driven a quick replan of the development schedule
and a review of the priorities for the remaining activities. A meeting was
held to discuss impacts and required actions as a result of the new
trajectory, and minor modifications to the sequence are underway.

The final S05 Ta-Radar test concluded execution in the Integrated Test
Laboratory this week. The sequence executed as planned.

A Simulation Coordination meeting for events in S06 was held this week. The
main topic of discussion was the simulation of the Tb flyby.

The S07 Science Operations Plan (SOP) Update process completed this week. A
hand-off product was delivered to the Sequence Team leads, who then held a
kickoff meeting for the SSUP process.

Preliminary port#1 occurred on Monday of this week as part of the S08 SOP
Update process. The products were merged and a report was delivered
identifying problems and issues that need to be resolved in time for the
official port. The official port was shifted by two days to allow the teams
more time to update their designs for the new reference trajectory. The
waiver request disposition meeting for this process was cancelled as no new
waiver requests had been submitted.

The Science Planning leads for the S10 Aftermarket process released a list
of events and time shifts as a result of the new reference trajectory. S10
executes in April 2005 and includes the Titan 5 and 6 flybys as well as
flybys of Mimas, Teheys, Epimetheus, and Calypso.

The Radio Science Subsystem team has released a report on activities that
occurred on September 17, 18, and 24. These included a 3-hour Ultra Stable
Oscillator characterization, a 1-hour special High Gain Antenna boresight
calibration, Ka-band Translator testing, monopulse and blind pointing
testing, and a Bay-7 warm-up/thermal stabilization test. These events
occurred over Madrid's DSS-63 and DSS-55 stations. In addition, engineering
passes were scheduled over Goldstone's DSS-25 and DSS-26 stations for the
purpose of verifying the monopulse tracking system and the antenna blind
pointing.

A program internal Tour Science Talk was given this week on the topic of
recent Magnetometer Subsystem and Cosmic Dust Analyzer science results.

Delivery Coordination meetings were held for Cassini Operations Reference
Encyclopedia (CORE) V5.0 and Mission Sequence Subsystem (MSS) version
D10.3.3. Cassini Archive Tracking System (CATS) v2.0 and CORE v5.0 were
successfully installed on the operations network this past Monday.

The Mission Support & Services Office reported that in the period between
September 28 and October 3, Cassini received the support of 7 DSN passes,
and uplinked 32 command files to the spacecraft.

Mission Assurance convened a Risk Team meeting this week to reassess risks
identified for Probe Release and Probe Relay. Four new risks were identified
following the previous meeting and they were added to the list for
evaluation this week. There are currently 27 Probe risks identified in the
Significant Risk List. Results of the latest risk assessment will be
presented at the Probe Mission Critical Event Readiness Review later in
October.

Cassini Science Planning and Outreach team members attended the 32nd annual
International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee this week.
The Library of Congress collected and videotaped true stories of American
Space Exploration from Cassini and Mars mission scientists and engineers
during the festival. Cassini images of Saturn were displayed in an exhibit
in the Storytelling Parlor, while Cassini staffers answered questions from
some of the 12,000 festival attendees.

Cassini Outreach and Science team members are participating in the NASA
Explorer Institute for national trainers from Girl Scouts of America this
week at JPL. During the evening NASA Resource Night at Mt. Wilson
Observatory in Pasadena, CA, Cassini Outreach discussed how the Saturn
Observation Campaign members around the country
(http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/members.cfm) could be tapped for Girl Scout events.
During the science-engineer career interviews and lunch with Girl Scouts,
several Cassini team members volunteered as interviewees and lunch mates.

A series of Cassini stories is being presented on StarDate, a radio program
and Internet resource based at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory.
Each month, StarDate offers a balance of astronomy and space science topics.
There are 36 stories on Cassini, going back to July 2000.
For the most recent Cassini information, press releases, and images, go to
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European
Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the
Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington,
D.C. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

Ron (or somebody else of the same name) wrote thusly in message
:

Cassini Significant Events
for 09/30/04 - 10/06/04

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking
station on Wednesday, October 6. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent
state of health and is operating normally.
All Cassini updates seem to begin thus. Have there really been no glitches
at all? Or is there something they're not telling us?

--
Paul Townsend
Pair them off into threes

Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply

"Prai Jei" wrote in message
...
Ron (or somebody else of the same name) wrote thusly in message
:

Cassini Significant Events
for 09/30/04 - 10/06/04

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid
tracking
station on Wednesday, October 6. The Cassini spacecraft is in an
excellent
state of health and is operating normally.
All Cassini updates seem to begin thus. Have there really been no glitches
at all? Or is there something they're not telling us?


There is something, and everyone else knows what it is. We just can't tell
YOU.

In message , Mighty
Krell writes

"Prai Jei" wrote in message
...
Ron (or somebody else of the same name) wrote thusly in message
:

Cassini Significant Events
for 09/30/04 - 10/06/04

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid
tracking
station on Wednesday, October 6. The Cassini spacecraft is in an
excellent
state of health and is operating normally.
All Cassini updates seem to begin thus. Have there really been no glitches
at all? Or is there something they're not telling us?


There is something, and everyone else knows what it is. We just can't tell
YOU.

ROFL.

I asked the same question a couple of years ago, because the press
releases described Cassini as being in excellent health, while Genesis
and Stardust were described as being in "good health" (which only goes
to show that it's not the fall that kills you, it's hitting the ground
:-( )
Actually, there have been times when Cassini has been described as being
in "good health" and posters have asked if that's worse than excellent!
Presumably they changed the text when Cassini had its problem at
Jupiter.
--
What have they got to hide? Release the ESA Beagle 2 report.
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.