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Cassini Significant Events 02/02/11 - 02/08/11 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on Feb. 8
from the Deep Space Network tracking complex at Madrid, Spain. 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. 2 (DOY 033) This week in science, the segment started off with the
Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) leading two sets of auroral
observations, performing repeated slews across Saturn's auroral oval as part of
a campaign to study auroral activity and variability. Imaging Science (ISS)
took images of the transit of Rhea across Dione for orbit determination
purposes; Rhea was imaged as Dione passed behind it while Rhea was 1.19 million
kilometers away and Dione was 1.94 million kilometers away. ISS, the Composite
Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) and the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer
(VIMS) monitored Titan at a phase angle of 42 degrees and a range of 2.4
million kilometers; the observation will allow researchers to monitor clouds
and look for surface changes. ISS then observed various satellites (Atlas,
Methone, Telesto and Helene) with the narrow angle camera as part of an ongoing
satellite orbit determination campaign, followed by Navigation taking optical
navigation pictures. The remainder of this week focused on Magnetospheric and
Plasma Science (MAPS) observations approaching apoapsis, primarily low latitude
apoapsis observations to give the MAPS instruments an opportunity to acquire
nearly complete and continuous measurements of Saturn's outer magnetosphere and
magnetosheath. Thursday, Feb. 3 (DOY 034) A feature story called “Surprise Hidden in
Titan’s Smog: Cirrus-Like Clouds” is available on the Cassini web
site. Every day is a bad-air day on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Blanketed by
haze far worse than any smog belched out in Los Angeles, Beijing or even
Sherlock Holmes' London, the moon looks like a dirty orange ball. Described
once as crude oil without the sulfur, the haze is made of tiny droplets of
hydrocarbons with other more noxious chemicals mixed in. For more information
on this subject link to: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20110203/.
Today fifty-six NASA INSPIRE high school students from
across the United States participated in an hour-long Cassini presentation and
question-and-answer webinar led by a member of Cassini’s Outreach team.
The students asked excellent questions about Saturn, Titan, Enceladus, and the
Cassini spacecraft. Friday, Feb. 4 (DOY 035) The Cassini Program's Outreach team submitted a short course
proposal about Reading, Writing & Rings for the California Science Teachers
Association annual conference which will be taking place in Pasadena, CA in
October 2011. Monday, Feb. 7 (DOY 038) Members of the Science Planning and Sequence Team met with
Mission Planning and the Cassini Project's DSN scheduler today to discuss DSN
user loading profiles during the upcoming busy launch season. The goal was to
assess whether any significant changes are needed in Cassini’s nominal
DSN tracking strategy. Tuesday, Feb. 08 (DOY 039) All instrument expanded block files were processed and
published and will be tested by the Spacecraft Operations team (SCO) in the
Integrated Test Laboratory in support of the S67 background sequence. The Downlink Ground System (DGS) team successfully
implemented Distributed Object Manager (DOM) Remote Method Invocation firewall
holes as part of the ongoing DOM transition to the Network File System (NFS)
task. A new target delivery date of late May has been tentatively scheduled for
the operational transition of DOM to NFS due to the unavailability of tester
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