Cassini Update - June 10, 2005

Cassini Significant Events
for 06/01/05 - 06/08/05

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired Wednesday from the
Goldstone and Madrid 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 .

Activities this week:

The main science event this week was the third Radio Science Subsystem
(RSS)
Occultation observation. More details on this observation appear in
the
June 8 section of this report.

Other activities during this week include a high-resolution study of
bow
shocks and other magnetospheric boundaries by the Cassini Plasma
Spectrometer, Radio and Plasma Wave Science subsystem (RPWS),
Magnetospheric
Imaging Instrument, and Magnetometer Subsystem (MAG). The Optical
Remote
Sensing instruments observed Dione and Titan, worked on identifying the
orbit of newly discovered rings, attempted to detect flashes from
meter-sized interplanetary impacts on the rings, and worked to obtain
thermal measurements of the rings.

Wednesday, June 1 (DOY 152):

A member of the Science Planning team gave a talk to 20 engineers at
the
monthly meeting of the Institute of Environmental Science and
Technology in
Anaheim, California.

A delivery coordination meeting was held for the Spacecraft Operations
Office (SCO) tools Assisted Load Format (ALF) version 11 and Predict
Generation Tool V9.2.

Members of the Magnetometer Subsystem gave a presentation on recent
Enceladus results at a Cassini internal Tour Science Talk.

The Planetary Data System (PDS) announced the first data release from
NASA's
Cassini Mission to Saturn. This release consists of data from the RPWS
instrument from October 1997 through January 2002. The next release of
Cassini data will be July 1, 2005. All available PDS data may be
downloaded
from: http://starbrite.jpl.nasa.gov/pds/index.jsp. For further
information about PDS online services, see the PDS home page:
http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/

Thursday, June 2 (DOY 153):

The Aftermarket process for the S15 sequence concluded today. The
Science
Operations Plan Update (SOPU) process will begin on June 16.

A delivery coordination meeting was held for the SCO tools Kinematic
Prediction Tool (KPT)/Inertial Vector Propagator (IVP) version 11. The
tools will be used in operations after the delivery of the Mission
Sequence
Subsystem on June 15.

A Deep Space Mission Systems Delivery Review (DDR) was held for the
Telemetry, Tracking, Command & Data Management system version 29.1.1.
No
issues were uncovered. The Mission Support & Services Office will now
begin
Cassini testing and will develop a plan for infrastructure installation
in
early July.

Uplink Operations sent commands to the spacecraft for the second S11
Live
IVP Update mini-sequence. The mini-sequence will begin execution
tomorrow.
A live movable block mini-sequence will be uplinked over the weekend
and
will execute on Wednesday, June 8.

Friday, June 3 (DOY 154):

Commands were sent to the spacecraft today to modify the System Fault
Protection Command Loss Timer (CLT) strategy. The CLT limit was
increased
from 85 hours - roughly 3.5 days - to 5 days. The limit was increased
to
span the duration of the next RSS occultation experiment. The limit
will be
commanded back to 85 hours on June 9.

Part of the fault protection system monitors communications with the
ground.
If for any reason a command is not received by the spacecraft before
the
expiration of the time limit, the spacecraft will assume there is a
"problem", call fault protection, and put Cassini into safe mode until
the
"problem" is resolved. This is a common feature on all spacecraft and
CLT
commands are sent each time Cassini has a DSN pass to prevent the
expiration
of the time limit.

Participating teams delivered files for the official port for the S14
Science Operations Plan Update process. The files will be merged the
beginning of next week.

Monday, June 6 (DOY 157):

An image of Enceladus and Saturn's rings was Astronomy Picture of the
day
today.

Members of the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) team and
Integrated Test Laboratory successfully ran a test of the new SSR
region for
VIMS command loads and the updated VIMS and ALF tool software which
gets the
load into the instrument.

The Official Port 1 Merge for S14 SOPU is now complete and the products
have
been placed in the Program file repository.

Tuesday, June 7 (DOY 158):

Outreach was accepted to give a workshop at the California Science
Teachers'
Association (CSTA) in October 2005. The workshop will focus on
"Reading,
Writing, and Rings".

A new Cassini poster is due for delivery to Outreach Friday June 10.

Wednesday, June 8 (DOY 159):

The Radio Science Subsystem (RSS) successfully measured the properties
of
Saturn's rings and atmosphere by performing an egress radio occultation
experiment. The occultation occurred over Goldstone stations 14, 25,
and 26
and Madrid stations 63 and 55. All five antennas supported the entire
observation. Fourteen open-loop receivers were recording
simultaneously.
Everything appears to have gone nominally. During the occultation,
VIMS and
the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph performed a solar occultation
ingress
experiment and the Cosmic Dust Analyzer measured the dust flux and
particle
composition during the Enceladus orbit crossing.

An Aftermarket process assessment meeting for the S16 sequence was held
today.
This Aftermarket process runs for five weeks and addresses proposed
discretionary changes that require re-integration of the segments
contained
in a sequence. At the Assessment meeting, the Project Scientist and
participating teams scope out the proposed changes and determine if
they
will fit within the available workforce "budget".

A delivery coordination meeting for the Cassini Archive Tracking System
(CATS) software v3 was held today. CATS is a web application tool that
tracks required archive submissions into PDS, and allows the project
and PDS
to accurately and efficiently report on archive submission status. The
software was accepted for delivery and will be in use as the first
archive
volumes are completed this month.

Non-targeted encounters of two moons of Saturn - Pallene and Calypso -
occurred today.

In a news release dated June 8, JPL announced the possible discovery of
a
Titan volcano that could be a source of methane in Titan's atmosphere.
Images taken in infrared light show a circular feature roughly 30
kilometers
in diameter that does not resemble any features seen on Saturn's other
icy
moons. Scientists interpret the feature as an "ice volcano," a dome
formed
by upwelling icy plumes that release methane into Titan's atmosphere.
The
findings appear in the June 9 issue of Nature.

For more information visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

Today we celebrate the 380th birthday of Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
Born
June 8, 1625, Cassini was the first to observe four of Saturn's moons
and
discovered what is now known as the Cassini Division in Saturn's rings.

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.