Cassini Update - July 2, 2009

Cassini Significant Events
for 06/24/09 - 06/29/09


The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired
on June 29 from the Deep Space Network tracking
complex at Goldstone, California. The Cassini
spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and
all subsystems are operating normally.
Information on the present position and speed of
the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the
"Present Position" page at:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/presentposition/


Wednesday, June 24 (DOY 175):

Scientists working on Cassini have detected
sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn's outermost
ring. Detecting salty ice indicates that Saturn's
moon Enceladus, which primarily replenishes the
ring with material from discharging jets, could
harbor a reservoir of liquid water -- perhaps an
ocean -- beneath its surface. For the full details on this story link
to:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news...lease20090624/

All participating teams submitted files today for
the first input port of the S55 Science Operations Plan process.

Thursday, June 25 (DOY 176):

Imaging Science (ISS) and the Ultraviolet Imaging
Spectrograph (UVIS) jointly observed Enceladus'
plume at intermediate phase, and ISS, UVIS and VIMS observed Mimas.

Friday, June 26 (DOY 177):

Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #203 was performed
today. This is the cleanup maneuver from the T57
encounter on 06/22. The main engine burn began at
1:29 AM PDT. Telemetry immediately after the
maneuver showed the burn duration was 14.3
seconds, giving a delta-V of 2.4 m/s. All
subsystems reported nominal performance after the maneuver.

Monday, June 29 (DOY 180):

Part 2 of the S51 background sequence was
radiated to the spacecraft today over the
Goldstone DSS-25 pass. It will begin execution on
Tuesday, July 7, and will conclude on July 23.

The Cassini Plasma Spectrometer led spacecraft
pointing for a Magnetosphere and Plasma Science
campaign to observe dawn-side magnetospheric
boundaries at a variety of radial distances, then
UVIS began system mosaic scans of Saturn's
magnetosphere in 8 hour time blocks over seven
non-consecutive days to observe atomic oxygen and hydrogen.

Visit the JPL Cassini home page for more
information about the Cassini Project:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
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