Cassini Significant Events 02/17/10 - 02/23/10
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on Feb. 23 from the
Deep Space Network tracking complex at Canberra, Australia. 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, Feb. 17 (DOY 048)
An encounter strategy meeting was held today to cover the period
between Mar. 2 and Apr. 6, the Rhea 2 and Dione 2 flybys, and maneuvers
239-241.
Saturn's moon Calypso was Astronomy Picture of the Day today. Check it
out here::
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100217.html
Science this week included a Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer
global dynamics mosaic of Saturn's equator, a Magnetometer calibration,
and a Radio Science boresight calibration. Imaging Science (ISS) took
multiple images of Iapetus, and observed the clouds of Titan. The
Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) created a mid-infrared thermal map
of Saturn to determine upper troposphere and tropopause temperature, and
measured oxygen compounds in Saturn's stratosphere. The Cassini Plasma
Spectrometer spent approximately 17.5 hrs participating in a
Magnetospheric and Plasma Science survey.
The Exhibit "400 Years of Discovery: From Galileo to the Outer
Planets" commemorating the anniversary of Galileo's discovery and
highlighting the exploration of the Outer Solar System including Cassini
will debut at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The
Woodlands, Texas, March 1-5, 2010. The resident Cassini EPO astronomer
has done a special related podcast that students and the public can
download for free on iTunes. It is available at
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-view.cfm?WUID=304, under
What's Up For February - 400th Anniversary of Galilean Moon discovery,
which includes NASA educational content and a two page flier on Galileo.
The NASA/Itunes link is here:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/whatsup_index.html
Wired Magazine, one of Cassini's Webby competitors for best science
website, admitted they love one of "our" moons. "Enceladus
has to be one of the most intriguing objects in the solar system. It's
definitely our favorite of Saturn's 62 moons here at Wired Science."
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/gallery-enceladus/ The
Wired piece was most likely a direct descendant of Cassini's Science
League feature.
Thursday, Feb. 18 (DOY 049)
An AACS Periodic Engineering Maintenance (PEM) activity occurred
today. Performed approximately every 90 days, the PEM exercises a
combination of the Engine Gimbal Actuators and the backup Reaction Wheel
Assembly (RWA).
Uplink Operations sent real time commands to the spacecraft today to
perform a CIRS noise test. The files patched the CIRS flight software to
perform the noise test, and then took data during a deep space
calibration observation and a Saturn CompSit prime observation. At the
end of the observations the patch returned the instrument state to the
current flight software version. The activity ran from 051T21:33:00 to
053T04:49:05. The purpose of the patch is to see if changes in the
software can eliminate internal instrument generated noise.
Friday, Feb. 19 (DOY 050)
A 3-D image of the Saturnian moon Prometheus has been posted to the
Cassini Web page. The news note that goes with this image called
"Behold the Violent History of Saturn's White Whale Moon"
explains that this view, which resembles the white whale Moby Dick,
exposes the irregular shape and circular surface scars on Prometheus,
pointing to a violent history. This image looks different from the
"egg-cellent" raw image of Prometheus obtained on Jan. 27
because that view shows one of the short ends of the oddly shaped moon.
In this image, the sun illuminates Prometheus at a different angle,
making the moon's elongated body visible.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20100219/
Monday, Feb. 22 (DOY 053):
All teams submitted Port 3 files for S60 and Port 2 files for S61 as
part of two Science Operations Plan processes. Each set of files will be
merged tomorrow and then sent back out to the teams for review.
Uplink Operations (ULO) radiated 14 Instrument Expanded Block files to
the spacecraft today in support of sequence S58. The background sequence
will go up Friday, and the sequence will begin execution on Monday, Mar.
1.
ULO has received an absolute timed real-time command file from the Cosmic
Dust Analyzer instrument team. Starting on DOY-061T16:00, the commands
will customize the instrument's visibility to bigger particles during the
upcoming Rhea flyby on Mar. 2 and the following periapse passage. The
command approval meeting for this file is scheduled for Thursday, Feb.
25.
Tuesday, Feb. 23 (DOY 054)
The monthly Cassini-Huygens Analysis and Results of the Mission
(CHARM) teleconference for February was held today. The topic: Boom and
Bust Cycles in Saturn's Rings. The presentation package is now on line
here:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/video/products/MultimediaProductsCharm/
Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #237 was performed today. This was the apoapsis
maneuver setting up for the Rhea 2 encounter on March 2. The Reaction
Control Subsystem burn began at 9:44 AM. Telemetry immediately after the
maneuver showed a burn duration of 8.75 seconds, giving a delta-V of
15.24 mm/s. All subsystems reported nominal performance after the
maneuver.
Newly released images from last November's flyby of Enceladus revealed a
forest of new jets spraying from prominent fractures crossing the south
polar region, and yielded the most detailed temperature map to date of
one fracture. The new images also include the best 3-D image ever
obtained of a "tiger stripe," and views of regions not well
mapped previously on Enceladus, including a southern area with crudely
circular tectonic patterns. For the full story and images link to the
following:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20100223/
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