Cassini Significant Events for 03/17/05 - 03/23/05 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired today from the Goldstone tracking station. 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 . Activities this week: Science activities this week included a magnetospheric boundary campaign performed by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS), Cosmic Dust Analyzer, Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer, Magnetometer Subsystem, Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) and Radio and Plasma Wave Science subsystem. These six instruments represent the entire suite of Magnetospheric and Plasma Science Instruments. Optical Remote Sensing contributed mosaics of Saturn's inner magnetosphere taken by the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph, and Iapetus limb topography and geodesy recorded by the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS). Thursday, March 17: A contrast-enhanced image of the surface of Enceladus was Astronomy Picture of the Day today. The Mission Sequence Subsystem (MSS) team began user acceptance testing for version D11 software. D11 will be delivered in May and is the Project's last big delivery for new capabilities. All MSS deliveries in the future will be maintenance only. Mission Planning hosted a session to discuss the possibility of lowering the flyby altitude for the Tethys encounter in September of this year. There are a number of trades and concerns to be examined with this issue. Among them are the science advantages of a closer flyby, impact to operations personnel if a new reference trajectory is delivered to support this change, impact to the science and sequence teams if extensive modifications to S14 are necessary, optical remote sensing of Tethys versus atmospheric science of Saturn, as well as the use of consumables. A decision meeting for this issue will be held Friday of next week. System Engineering coordinated a MIMI flight software random access memory patch meeting. The patch is in response to an issue regarding the Low Energy Magnetospheric Measurement Subsystem (LEMMS) sensor. At times, the sensor stops communicating with the main electronics. The fix is to power cycle the LEMMS. The purpose of the patch is to have the code issue the power cycle instead of having to send up real time commands. The patch was approved and will be uplinked tomorrow. System Engineering also led a Ground Software Status Monthly Management Review today. The Teams and Offices reported readiness for the D11 Spring delivery and installation along with Deep Space Mission Systems D14.1 with new TPS and Telemetry, Tracking, Command & Data Management. The Navigation Team delivered their final orbit determination solution for Orbit Trim Maneuver #18 (OTM). OTM-18 will execute over the weekend. Friday, March 18: Uplink Operations (ULO) sent real-time commands to the spacecraft for a MIMI LEMMS flight software patch and motor test, a CAPS actuator test to articulate to +90 degrees, and an ISS trigger overlay mini-sequence As part of S10 development, ULO delivered the Live Movable Block (LMB) mini-sequence containing the Radio Science Subsystem and Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer requests, and the current version of the S10 background sequence that doesn't include the LMB activities. ISS delivered an updated version of instrument flight software to the Project Software Library. One fix and one enhancement were made to improve robustness. A final run in the Integrated Test Laboratory will occur prior to the final delivery review on April 15. Saturday, March 19: Cassini's fifth orbit around Saturn began today. Rev 5 is 18 days long and will conclude at the next apoapsis on April 6 when Rev 6 will begin. OTM-18 was performed on the spacecraft this morning. This apoapsis maneuver targets the spacecraft to the proper trajectory for the March 31 Titan flyby at an altitude of 2,402 km. The main engine burn began at 11:31 a.m. PST. A "quick look" at telemetry immediately after the maneuver showed the burn duration was 10.4 sec long, giving a delta-V of 1.6 m/s. All subsystems performance was nominal. Monday, March 21: All products for preliminary port two were delivered as part of the Science Operations Plan Update process for the S12 sequence. The files were merged and the resulting files posted for review. Today at the Project Science meeting a lively discussion was held about the possibility of a Tethys tweak - see the entry from Friday, March 18. After the discussion, a consensus emerged that the delta V for this proposed change should be kept at or below 10 m/sec or the equivalent of about one Titan flyby, and the Radar atmospheric science in this time interval should be preserved. Project discussions are continuing before a final decision is reached. Tuesday, March 22: At the Mission Planning Forum today Navigation gave a presentation on the estimated duration of an extended mission based on the characteristics of the nominal mission - number of encounters, and number of days between encounters - and predictions of how much bi-propellant will still be available in 2008. Some additional Tethys tweak information was also provided at the Mission Planning Forum along with the latest Consumables update. Mission planning tracks the "consumables" for the spacecraft and instruments. This includes main engine cover cycles - how many times we close and open it to protect the engines -, how long instruments have been powered "on" since launch, instrument articulations, use of reaction wheels, etc. OTM-18 is looking so good that there's a possibility that Navigation will recommend canceling OTM-19, the T4 approach maneuver. In a possible maneuver cancellation situation, Navigation provides two orbit determination (OD) solutions. One shows the trajectory that will happen if we do the maneuver, and another trajectory that will happen if we don't. Pointing plots are also provided showing the difference between what was planned, what will happen, and the uncertainty of the trajectories. Science Planning will provide COVT plots showing the fields of view for each Science Planning Attitude Spread Sheet prime request for both trajectories. The teams then evaluate these plots and provide feedback to the sequence leads. In this case, the S09 leads with a due date of Thursday March 25 for the 3pm meeting. The Program may repeat the whole thing for ODs delivered on Thursday, but in previous situations the input from the distributed teams in the first meeting was sufficient. We did the exact same thing for the approach to Enceladus maneuver and ultimately the maneuver was cancelled. Wednesday March 23: An assessment meeting was held today as part of the Science Planning Aftermarket process for S14. The purpose of the assessment is to determine if the requested changes fit within available resources. The proposed "Tethys Tweak" would occur in S14. The consensus of participants was that changes were in the ballpark for workload with regards to the standard S14 changes, and the changes that will be required for the Tethys Tweak. However, the S14 Science Planning lead requested that all participants respond with a specific impact to workload given the modifications that would need to be made. The plot thickens? Stay tuned for next Friday's decision meeting on this issue. Wrap up: The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired Wednesday from the Goldstone tracking station. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and all subsystems are operating normally. Check out the Cassini web site at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov for the latest press releases and images. The Cassini-Huygens mission 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, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. --- To unsubscribe from Cassini Spacecraft Updates, send a message to leave-cassini-xxxx@list.jpl.nasa.gov --- Visit the JPL Cassini home page for more information about the Cassini Project: <http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/>
