Cassini Significant Events 06/10/09 - 06/16/09
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on June 16 from the
Deep Space Network tracking complex at Goldstone, California. 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/mission/presentposition/.
Wednesday, June 10 (DOY 161)
Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #200 was performed today. This is the
cleanup maneuver after the Titan 56 encounter on June 6. The main
engine burn began at 2:30 AM PDT. Telemetry immediately after the
maneuver showed the burn duration was 12.67 seconds, giving a delta-V of
2.1 m/sec. All subsystems reported nominal performance after the
maneuver.
Thursday, June 11 (DOY 162)
Outreach gave a presentation today on the Cassini Saturn Observation
Campaign during the IYA2009 Citizen Science Program Session at the
American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena.
Friday, June 12 (DOY 163)
Today Imaging Science (ISS) performed intermediate phase, dark-face
ring photometry for 4h30m, followed by another observation in the
Satellite Orbit Determination Campaign. Next the Ultraviolet Imaging
Spectrograph (UVIS) observed a star as it passed behind the rings. The
Cassini Plasma Spectrometer then took pointing control of the spacecraft
to perform a Magnetospheric and Plasma Science survey for 2h41m.
Saturday, June 13 (DOY 164):
The S50 sequence concluded and S51 began execution today at
2009-164T04:41. The S51 sequence will run for 40 days and conclude
on July 23. Due to the size of the sequence, it has been split into two
parts with Part 2 beginning execution on July 7. During execution
there will be two targeted encounters of Titan and one non-targeted flyby
of Dione. Eight maneuvers are scheduled, numbered 201 through 208.
First time events include AACS Flight Software normalization for version
8.7.7.
Sunday, June 14 (DOY 165):
Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #201 was performed today. This is the
apoapsis maneuver setting up for the Titan 57 encounter on June 22.
The Reaction Control Subsystem burn began at 7:45 PM PDT. Telemetry
immediately after the maneuver showed the burn duration was 22 seconds,
giving a delta-V of 0.03 m/s. All subsystems reported nominal performance
after the maneuver.
Monday, June 15 (DOY 166):
Science Planning hosted an S55 Science Highlights meeting today. The
presentation focused on what observations will be unique and highest
priority during that sequence. The information was provided by the
Target Working Team and Orbiter Science Team leads, with comments from
the Investigation Scientists and other instrument team
representatives. A special topic at this meeting was discussion of
thruster use and predicted hydrazine consumption for the Enceladus 8
flyby in November.
A kickoff meeting was held today for a Radio Science (RSS) Titan 57 live
update for DOY-173. RSS reported that based on the latest orbit
determination solution from Navigation, published last Friday afternoon,
the pointing errors are sufficiently small that they will be using the
existing ?on the shelf? RSS design.
Tuesday, June 16 (DOY 167):
An encounter strategy meeting was held today to cover the period between
June 22 and July 8, Titan flybys T57 and T58, and maneuvers 203-205.
The Science Operations Plan process for S53 concluded last Friday with
the final delivery to Uplink Operations of the handoff package.
Today a kick-off meeting was held to initiate the final development
process for this sequence. During the execution of S53, ground
operations expects to uplink patches to CDS flight software, and Cassini
will enter Solar Conjunction, a time of limited communications between
the ground and the spacecraft.
Spacecraft Operations concluded AACS flight software (FSW) normalization
today for the recently uplinked version A8.7.7. At all times there are
four copies of FSW on the SSR. During FSW updates, two copies are made of
the new software and two copies are kept of the current
version. Spacecraft operations are then conducted using the
new software, and once the new FSW load is deemed acceptable,
normalization makes all copies equivalent to the new version.
Due to the one-day launch delay for the Lunar CRater Observation and
Sensing Satellite and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Cassini flight
team has decided to accelerate the uplink schedule for OTM-202. LCROSS
and LRO are currently scheduled to launch on June 18 and the maneuver
would be uplinked on June 19. If there were any further launch
delays, there could be a conflict for DSN coverage. An early uplink
for Cassini avoids any possible issues.
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