Cassini Update - February 6, 2004

Cassini Significant Events
for 01/29/04 - 02/03/04

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Monday, February 2. 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 .

C42 continued this week with Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) and
Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) solar wind observations, uplink of
commands for the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) for a
flight software checkout mini-sequence and to send Instrument Expanded
Blocks directly to the instrument, setting of an internal raw data parameter
for the Cosmic Dust Analyzer, RPWS high frequency receiver calibrations, and
clearing of the ACS high water marks.

A C44 Sequence Change Request (SCR) meeting for the subsequence generation
sub phase was held this week. Three SCRs were approved. These include
adding real-time command windows to accommodate flight software
normalization for CDA and VIMS, and changing the Ion and Neutral Mass
Spectrometer checkout activities from a background sequence activity to a
separate mini sequence. The Navigation team has determined that the current
DSN allocation for C44 is adequate for navigation accuracy for Saturn
approach. No additional tracking is required.

Preliminary and official port #2 for Science Operations Plan (SOP)
Implementation for tour sequences S21 and S22 occurred this week.
Preliminary port #1 for SOP Implementation for S23 and S24 also occurred
this week. The Spacecraft Activity Sequence Files were merged and the
reports sent out to the teams for review.

The SOP Update process for S01 kicked off on Friday, January 30.

The Decision meeting for tour sequence S02 was held as part of the
Aftermarket process. At the meeting it was determined that all proposed
changes could be accommodated within the allocated work units with enough
margin for future changes. All requested changes were approved for further
integration by the Magnetospheric Target Working Team.

This week saw the conclusion of a Project Science Group (PSG) meeting at the
California Institute of Technology and JPL in Pasadena, California.
Discussions focused on the upcoming Phoebe flyby on June 11, 2004, and
Saturn orbit insertion on June 30 (PDT) (July 1, GMT), as well as public
affairs plans to support these key activities. Spacecraft and project
status were also presented. PSG members roundly applauded a major, key
milestone: the completion of science integration for the 4-year tour.
Other highlights included formation of the Titan Science Group. This group
will be responsible for Titan orbiter science planning and updates during
the tour. Also discussed were dates for upcoming PSG meetings and a
revision of the PSG meeting format in order to include more time for science
reports.

All teams and offices supported the Cassini / NASA Quarterly review held at
JPL.

The Instrument Operations Team Distributed Operations Coordinator compiled
and released a test report from last week's DTF 21 Probe Relay data flow
test. The test was to exercise the ability of the Huygens operations
center in Darmstadt, Germany to receive 66Kbps real-time broadcast data as
well as NERT TDS queries by Virtual Channel ID. The preliminary test report
will be reviewed at next week's Probe Relay meeting.

An announcement was made through the Smithsonian Institution's Central
Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams regarding an update to the rotation period
of Phoebe, one of the Saturnian satellites to be observed by Cassini. Refer
to Circular No. 8279 at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html or go
directly to http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/08200/08279.html

An article was released through Space.com regarding plans for increased
exploration of Titan. For more information go to
http://space.com/scienceastronomy/titan_probes_040203.html

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