NASA Cassini Significant Events 06/30/09 – 07/07/09
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/operations/present-position.cfm
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on July 7 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.
Tuesday, June 30 (DOY 181)
The Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) performed Saturn system scans for six out of the eight reporting days this week to observe atomic oxygen and hydrogen. Imaging Science (ISS) observed various satellites with the narrow angle camera as part of an ongoing satellite orbit campaign, and the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) performed observations to quantify the amount of polarization present in the thermal infrared emission of the rings. The purpose of this observation was to gain insight into the regolith properties of ring particles, their shape, and the “clumpiness” of ring particles.
Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #204 was performed today. This is the apoapsis maneuver setting up for the Titan 58 encounter on July 8. The reaction control subsystem burn began at 6:45 pm PDT. Telemetry immediately after the maneuver showed the burn duration was 9.13 seconds, giving a delta-V of 16.04 mm/s. All subsystems reported nominal performance after the maneuver.
Today is the first anniversary of the completion of the Cassini Prime Mission and completes the first year of the Cassini Equinox Mission.
The Cassini-Huygens Analysis and Results of the Mission (CHARM) teleconference for June addressed the topic: ” Cassini Huygens Mission to Saturn Fifth Anniversary,” Part 1 – Highlights of Saturn and Saturn’s Magnetosphere. A copy of the presentation is available at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/video/products/MultimediaProductsCharm/
Wednesday, July 1 (DOY 182)
An encounter strategy meeting was held today to cover the period between July 8 and July 24, Titan flybys T58 and T59, and maneuvers 206-208.
Thursday, July 2 (DOY 183):
The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) performed a “solar port to sun” instrument calibration today, and then a stellar calibration with Alpha Centauri as the target.
Friday, July 3 (DOY 184):
As a consequence of the excellent accuracy achieved with OTM #204, a bias in the time of closest approach to T58 would have been needed to be designed into the OTM #205 maneuver commands in order to have the delta-V magnitude reach the minimum maneuver size. As a result of this modification, performing the maneuver would have caused a larger arrival time miss at T58 than canceling the maneuver altogether. Therefore, OTM-205 was canceled.
From Friday through Sunday, instrument activities included a 6-hour Magnetometer calibration roll, magnetospheric boundary campaign observations, a CIRS far-IR mapping scan of the northern hemisphere of Saturn to determine hemispheric thermal structure of the upper troposphere, a Titan cloud monitoring campaign, and an observation of the rings to map the thermal emission at a variety of viewing geometries to help understand ring particle properties and ring dynamics.
Monday, July 6 (DOY 187):
S53 has entered the Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation (PSIV) portion of the last sequence development process prior to uplink. Cycle 1 products have been distributed to the flight team for review. In addition, RADAR has requested simulation in the Integrated Test Laboratory (ITL) for a synthetic aperture RADAR activity during the T61 flyby. The first meeting to support this activity will occur tomorrow with personnel from the Spacecraft Office, ITL, and RADAR along with the sequence leads participating. Finally, the PSIV Science Allocation Panel meeting has been cancelled, as negotiations for DSN tracks during execution are not yet complete.
