Cassini Update - October 9, 2009

Cassini Significant Events
for 09/30/09 - 10/06/09

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired
on Oct. 6 from the Deep Space Network tracking
complex at Madrid, Spain. 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/operation...t-position.cfm


Wednesday, Sept. 30 (DOY 273):

An encounter strategy meeting was held today to
cover the period between Oct. 12 and Nov. 7,
Titan flyby T62, Enceladus flyby E7, and maneuvers 218-220.

The final numbers for the U.S. edition of the
Fall 2009 Cassini Scientist for a Day essay contest are in:
U.S. entries: 330 essays
Number of U.S. students: 372
Number of teachers: 41
Number of U.S. states: 19 plus Puerto Rico --
including Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming for the first time
Number of homeschooled students: 8

Most international deadlines are in late October,
so in a month or so Outreach will have a sense of
how many students participated internationally.

Thursday, Oct. 1 (DOY 274):

S54 sequence leads have cancelled the Go/No-go
meeting scheduled for Friday as part of the
development process for the DOY 286 Rhea, Tethys,
Mimas, Enceladus live update. Instrument teams
have agreed that vectors for Rhea, Tethys and
Enceladus need to be updated. The vector files
will be prepared by AACS, with the merged
products released by Monday, Oct. 5. Teams then
have until Oct. 7 to review the products. Uplink
is planned for Friday, Oct 9.

Friday, Oct. 2 (DOY 275):

Today the Titan Orbiter Science Team hosted a
Titan T62-T70 preview. This meeting is a forum
for all instrument teams to present what unique
science will be obtained for each of the flybys
and what observations will be performed.

Monday, Oct. 5 (DOY 278)

The backup inertial reference unit (IRU-B) on
board Cassini was calibrated on Oct. 4. This was
the yearly checkout, with IRU-B made prime for
the duration of the calibration turns. The
results indicated continued proper performance.

The S53 sequence concluded and S54 began
execution today at 2009-278T04:03:00 SCET. The
sequence will run for 39 days and conclude on
November 13. During that time there will be two
targeted encounters, one of Titan, one of
Enceladus, and ten non-targeted flybys - Rhea on
DOY 286, Methone, Atlas, Calypso, Mimas, and
Tethys on DOY 287, Titan on DOY 305, Pallene,
Epimetheus, and Calypso on DOY 306. Six OTMs are
scheduled, numbered 217 through 222.

Science at the top of the sequence begins with a
Magnetospheric segment that will run for almost
seven days and contain some high priority
combined Magnetospheric and Plasma
Science/Optical Remote Sensing auroral
observations, and a Magnetometer calibration
roll on DOY 281.

Tuesday, Oct. 6 (DOY 279)
The Navigation team has completed an in-depth
analysis of the reference trajectory selected at
the June Project Science Group meeting and is
issuing an update. No major design changes or
tweaks have been made - this update is primarily
due to more sophisticated analyses, e.g. mostly
small adjustments to maneuver locations and
updated satellite ephemerides. Timing
differences are expected to be minor.