Cassini Significant Events for 08/08/07 - 08/14/07 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on Tuesday, Aug. 14, from the Goldstone tracking complex. 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" web page located at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm . Wednesday, Aug. 8 (DOY 220): Radio Science (RSS) completed three DSN passes in its conduct of its annual Solar Corona Characterization experiment. This experiment will run through 9/04/2007 when solar conjunction ends. An entire day of the annual three day Bay Area Writing Project conference was devoted to Cassini's "Reading, Writing and Rings." (Editor's Note: More information on "Reading, Writing and Rings" is available at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm ). Thursday, Aug. 9 (DOY 221.): The S36 aftermarket process concluded today and the SOP update process will begin on Aug. 20. During the aftermarket process, science teams are allowed to take their observation designs done four years ago "off the shelf" and make modifications or swap observation times with other teams based on new discoveries from the mission, as long as these mods can be accommodated with the time and resources available. The S38 Engineering Activities Review was held today. Friday, Aug. 10 (DOY 222): AACS Periodic Engineering Maintenance (PEM) was successfully completed. This activity, performed every 90 days, exercises the Engine Gimbal Actuators (EGAs) and the backup reaction wheel assembly (RWA-3), and scrubs the Backdoor Assisted Load Format Injection Loader memory. Saturday, Aug. 11 (DOY 223): The S32 sequence completed execution today and S33 began. On-board science activities this week for the Optical Remote Sensing (ORS) instruments include Imaging Science Subsystem Wide Angle Camera (ISS WAC) and Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) movies of Saturn's southern hemisphere and Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) mosaic of Saturn's inner magnetosphere. In addition to the ORS observations, the suite of Magnetospheric and Plasma Science (MAPS) instruments simultaneously performed low-rate magnetospheric surveys. Monday, Aug. 13 (DOY 224): Science Planning delivered the nearly final version of the S35 sequence as part of the SOP update process. S35 will be delivered to the Sequence Team on 8/17/07. Tuesday, Aug. 14 (DOY 225) Science planning activities this week include the Aftermarket process for the S37 sequence and planning for the extended mission with emphasis on the development of integrated plans for orbits 75 through 78. Wrap up: 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.
