Cassini Update - June 3, 2005

Cassini Significant Events
for 05/26/05 - 05/31/05

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired Tuesday from the
Goldstone
tracking station. 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 .

Activities this week:

On-board science activities this week include a joint study by the
Optical
Remote Sensing instruments of Saturn's atmosphere and the measurement
of
tropospheric temperatures. The Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS),
Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), and Visual and Infrared Mapping
Spectrometer (VIMS) will attempt to detect flashes from meter-sized
interplanetary impacts on the rings.

Meanwhile, the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS), Radio and Plasma
Wave
Science Subsystem (RPWS), Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI), and
Magnetometer Subsystem (MAG) will perform a high-resolution study of
bow
shocks and other magnetospheric boundaries.

Thursday, May 26 (DOY 146):

JPL had a visit last week from the new NASA Administrator Mike Griffin.
Cassini was pleased to be able to provide Mr. Griffin with a visit to
the
Cassini Ace console. This is the station from where all our commands
are
sent to the spacecraft. In addition, outreach personnel presented
Reading,
Writing, and Rings, the Cassini formal education initiative. RWR helps
prepare children for standardized language arts tests while engaging
our
nation's youngest learners and their teachers with the science, math,
and
technology of NASA's exploration in a language arts format.

Outreach has recently beefed up the Cassini Website. If you go to
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/moons/index.cfm
and scroll to the bottom of the third paragraph you will find a link to
New
Discoveries. From this location you can read about the new moons that
have
been recently observed orbiting Saturn.

A kick-off meeting was held today for the S11 Live Inertial Vector
Propagator update and Live Movable Block process. As part of this
process,
Navigation released a special Orbit Determination solution for use for
the
next Radio Science Occultation. Teams have the rest of today and
tomorrow
to review the files and be prepared to present at Tuesday's Go/No Go
meeting. UPDATE: Tuesday's meeting gave it a go!

CAPS performed a checkout of their new flight software, the Spacecraft
Operations Office uplinked the new ACS 8.7.2 flight software parameter
patch, and VIMS used the Automated Sequence Processor to uplink
instrument
commands independently of the sequence leads.

For the second year, Cassini Outreach attended the Los Angeles Coliseum
Street Elementary School Career Day. This year three third grade
classes
and one fifth grade class were visited. Each of the two dozen career
day
volunteers was introduced at morning assembly and many students cheered
when
they heard a visitor from JPL would talk about career opportunities.
NASA
and Saturn stickers and Cassini bookmarks were handed out to the kids.
Student volunteers received the stickers plus a Cassini poster.
Interested
teachers will follow up to receive Cassini's Reading, Writing and Rings
literacy program material or assistance in using the material in their
classroom.

Friday, May 27 (DOY 147):

A picture of Titan's "Odd Spot" is Astronomy Picture of the Day today.

Uplink Operations sent commands to the spacecraft for a Reaction Wheel
Assembly bias overlay, an Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer instrument
flight software patch and memory readout, a flight software checkout
for the
Cosmic Dust Analyzer, and a Ka-band equipment power on/off for Radio
Science.

All products were received for the S14 preliminary port delivery as
part of
the Science Operations Plan Update process. The merge has been
completed
and all products placed in the file repository for teams to review.

Monday, May 30 (DOY 150):

Rhea's "great white spot" was Astronomy Picture of the Day on Sunday,
May
29.

Today is apoapsis and the start of Cassini's ninth orbit around Saturn.

CDA ran a checkout of their new flight software today. Everything went
well.

Tuesday, May 31 (DOY 151):

Uplink Operations sent three sets of files to the spacecraft for the
VIMS
SSR Instrument Expanded Block (IEB) load. Initialization files, the
IEB
load itself, and cleanup and memory readout (MRO) files were sent. All
files
reached the spacecraft with no errors.

Wrap up:

Check out the Cassini web site at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov for the
latest
press releases and images.

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.