Cassini Significant Events 09/15/10 - 09/21/10
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on Sept. 21 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, Sept. 15 (DOY 258)
Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #261A was performed today. This was the
apoapsis maneuver setting up for the Titan (T72) encounter on Sept. 24.
The main engine burn began at 9:14 PM PDT. Telemetry immediately after
the maneuver showed a burn duration of 158.75 seconds, giving a delta-V
of 0.176 m/s, as planned . All subsystems reported nominal performance
after the maneuver.
Thursday, Sept. 16 (DOY 259)
Commands were radiated and verified over Canberra's DSS-43 today for
the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) Ion calibration pointing, which
will execute on the spacecraft Sept. 27, and for CAPS actuator testing
during conjunction, when the spacecraft is on thrusters, executing on
Sept. 30.
Friday, Sept. 17 (DOY 260)
This week the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) took several
observations of Saturn's stratosphere, and conducted a mid-infrared
mapping observation of Saturn's atmosphere; this observation seeks to map
Saturn's upper troposphere and tropopause temperature profile, with
spatial resolution of approximately 2 degrees in both longitude and
latitude.
Imaging Science (ISS) took images of up to 10 Saturnian satellites in
order to better determine their orbits, and imaged a small irregular moon
called Kiviuq. ISS performed an observation monitoring Titan's
atmosphere; this is part of an on-going campaign to track the long term
behavior of the atmosphere. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer
(VIMS) took a 3 by 3 map of Saturn's atmosphere.
Saturday, Sept. 18 (DOY 261)
Today Cassini supported telemetry testing of the Data Capture and
Delivery (DCD) software by participating in the DSN-DCD Project Interface
Test (PIT). Further analysis to explain the out-of-sync data received is
still ongoing.
Monday, Sept. 20 (DOY 263)
Orbit Trim Maneuver #262, the T72 approach maneuver, was cancelled.
There was no science impact and cancellation of the maneuver saved
overall delta-V.
Tuesday, Sept. 21 (DOY 264)
This week the working group for the Distributed Object Manager (DOM)
transition to the Network File System (NFS) began meeting. Currently, DOM
is on the legacy Andrew File System (AFS), a distributed network file
system which is no longer supported by the Laboratory. This is an ongoing
task slated for completion early in 2011.
A feature story called "Spring on Titan Brings Sunshine and Patchy
Clouds" is available on the Cassini web site. It describes research
by scientists who have analyzed more than 2,000 VIMS images to create the
first long-term study of Titan's weather using observational data that
also includes data taken during the equinox period. Equinox, when the sun
was directly over the equator, occurred in August 2009. For more
information on this subject, link to:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20100921/.
A lunchtime seminar titled "Microwaving Titan" was presented
today by a Cassini RADAR team member. This talk described the present
understanding of Titan's surface and how the radar and radiometer worked
together to better understand the nature of its surface. This event was
sponsored by the JPL Edward Stone Award for Outstanding Publication
Seminars, which highlight each recipient's outstanding published research
to the JPL Community.
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