Cassini Significant Events for 12/05/02 - 12/11/02

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Cassini Significant Events
for 12/05/02 - 12/11/02

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday, December 11.  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/operations/present-position.cfm .

An autonomous Solid State Recorder Memory Load Partition repair was
performed on board the spacecraft this week.  Additional instrument
activities included execution of the Radio and Plasma Wave (RPWS) looper
program #1, RPWS High Frequency Receiver calibrations, flight software
normalization for Imaging Science Subsystem v1.3, Cosmic Dust Analyzer
(CDA) v9.0, and Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) v5.1
flight software loads, uplink of RPWS v2.6 and CDA v9.0.2 flight
software, and the start of Gravitational Wave Experiment (GWE) #2.
GWE#2 will last for 40 days, and will require continuous DSN support.
The first few days of GWE #2 proceeded nominally until a power glitch at
the DSS-25 station interrupted the X-band and the Ka-band transmitters.
However, both transmitters were operational again within about an hour.
On the third day, the Ka-Band Translator (KaT) dropped lock and went to
the bad region twice during a pass.  On both occasions, commands to
power cycle the KaT were uplinked to the  spacecraft, and by one
round-trip-light-time later, the KaT had locked successfully.  Since
then, operations have been nominal.

The Science Operations Plan implementation activity for tour sequences
S15/S16 kicked off this week.  These sequences cover Orbit 16 through
Orbit 19. The Cruise 37 Science Planning Team development activity also
kicked off this week.  The process completes in February 2003.  Both
activities have planned a 2-week down time during the Christmas and New
Years holiday period.

The Instrument Operations team hosted their monthly Instrument
Operations Working Group meeting. Presentations included an overview of
presentation content for the October 2003 Operations Readiness Review
and Virtual Private Network and Remote Terminal Interface Unit status.

The topics at this week's Mission Planning forum included study results
of distant occultations and close rock encounters during tour, and a
proposed addition of two maneuvers during cruise.  Trajectory Correction
Maneuvers 19a and 19b would occur in September of 2003, and would allow
the flight team an opportunity to exercise processes to be used in tour,
demonstrate "first time" capabilities that will be needed during Saturn
Orbit Insertion, and provide an opportunity for an additional Reaction
Control Subsystem maneuver, the previous one having been performed in
May of 1999.

The Spacecraft Operations Office held a Flight Software/Critical
Sequence Monthly Management Review. Participants were office and program
management, the Attitude Control, Command and Data System, Integrated
Test Lab, and Systems teams.

A Delivery Coordination Meeting/Software Requirements Certification
Review was held this week for VIMS flight software version 6.1.  The
software has been cleared for uplink to the spacecraft, and the Assisted
Load Format file has been delivered from the Program Software Library to
the Integrated Test Laboratory for testing and uplink preparation.  The
software is planned to be uplinked to the spacecraft in early January
2003.

Acceptance testing for most of the Uplink Operations Mission Sequence
Software version D9.0 software set has begun. Testing for the Pointing
Design Tool is expected to start by the end of the month. Outreach
attended the National Science Teachers Association western regional
conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico December 5-7. Multiple workshops
were held on building integrated science  and literacy curricula,
blending standards into existing curricula, and current trends in
education and education reform. Many textbooks and activity packages
were available for participant review.

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



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