Cassini Update - June 23, 2006

Cassini Significant Events
for 06/15/06 - 06/19/06

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired Monday, June 19, from
the
Goldstone tracking stations. 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 is a short status week covering Thursday, June 15 through
Monday,
June 19. Tuesday and Wednesday the 20th and 21st will be included in
the
report for next week.

Thursday, June 15 (166):

Science activities this week are similar to the previous week. The
pattern
of Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) observations, followed by
Cassini
Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) controlling the spacecraft orientation for
the
Magnetospheric and Plasma Science instruments, followed by Imaging
Science
Subsystem (ISS) observations continues until June 18

On Sunday, June 18, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) measured
oxygen compounds of H2O and CO2 in Saturn's stratosphere for almost 14
hours. These measurements continued on Monday, June 19, and Tuesday,
June
20, but were preceded by the acquisition of an image of Iapetus by ISS.

The spacecraft operations office successfully completed an Operational
Readiness Test today. This test exercised the flight team in a
worst-case
response for the Titan 16 flyby on July 22. Should the spacecraft enter
safe
mode following a loss of attitude when Cassini passes by at an altitude
of
950 km, the team will be well practiced in how to respond.

Friday, June 16 (DOY 167):

At least four Cassini images are included in the Astronomy Picture of
the
Day mosaic celebrating the 11th anniversary of that organization.

The sequence leads for S22 are still in negotiations with the DSN and
the
STEREO mission to obtain the necessary passes to support data
acquisition
during that sequence. A DSS-14 pass has been obtained by Cassini on DOY
224
to help alleviate coverage lost on DOY 223. There is a large impact to
members of the sequence team when DSN coverage changes this late in the
process. At the beginning of the process, a DSN allocation file is
provided
to the team that confirms when data will be downlinked. If that
information
changes, new sequence files must be created, and submitted, and then
revised, and resubmitted each time the coverage changes. At the very
end of
the process, if not enough passes are found to match what was
originally
planned for, science data will have to be cut.

Monday, June 19 (DOY 170):

The Instrument Operations Multi-Mission Image Processing Laboratory has
delivered to "test" the latest set of fixes and enhancements to ground
software. This software set will be tested and then delivered for
operations
use in September.

Today is the first day of the Project Science Group (PSG) meeting being
held
in Nantes, France. The PSG meets three times a year to report on the
latest
Cassini science findings, receive an overview of project status, and to
discuss issues of importance to the scientists. Today the Titan science
group and Radar Team will be meeting to discuss topics of significance
to
their members.

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.