Cassini Update - October 31, 2003

Cassini Significant Events
for 10/23/03 - 10/29/03

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Tuesday, October 28. 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 .

On-board activities this week included a Radio and Plasma Wave Science
(RPWS) high frequency receiver calibration and uplink of the Imaging
Science Subsystem Narrow Angle Camera / Wide Angle Camera SSR instrument
expanded blocks.

An exercise of the Cassini emergency control center (ECC) at the DSN
complex at Goldstone, California was conducted this week. These
exercises are held periodically in order to verify the ECC's ability to
support emergency operations.

A science allocation panel meeting and a Sub Sequence Generation
Sequence Change Request Approval meeting were held this week as part of
development of the C42 background sequence. The waiver disposition
meeting was cancelled, as there were no new waivers submitted.

Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer personnel completed analysis of
data returned from last week's in-flight test of flight software version
7.1. The test was entirely successful.

RPWS detected Tuesday's X17 solar flare being reported in the news as
the 'flare of the century'. Radio emissions were detected using the
amplitude-frequency information from the high frequency receiver.

Kickoff meetings were held this week for the C44 science planning team
process and the S19/S20 science operations plan (SOP) implementation
process. In addition, a package from the wrap-up meeting for S01/SO2
SOP implementation has been released.

A delivery coordination meeting was held for Command Data Base version
D10A. This version supports Mission Sequence Subsystem version D10.1
and implements changes to three commands needed by the Composite
InfraRed Spectrometer team for their flight software checkout.

Sunday marked the last day of transition from use of the old hard copy
command request form to use of the new electronic command request form
process.

Cassini Outreach participated in an after-school student presentation
for 150 elementary school children in San Diego, California, and gave
presentations at an air show at Dryden / Edwards Air Force Base in
California. The show averaged 150,000 attendees each day.

Cassini 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, Calif., manages the
Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

Cassini Outreach
Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration