NASA Cassini Significant Events 05/25/11 – 05/31/11

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on May 31 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. 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, May 25 (DOY 145)

On May 23 and 24, a group of scientists met at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA, for an Enceladus workshop where they discussed the latest news and theories on this fascinating, tiny active moon.

This week’s science observations picked up from last week with the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) performing the final three in a suite of four 37-hour solar wind observations out at this very distant apoapsis. The Magnetometer performed a 7 hour calibration while the spacecraft was rolling about its X-axis, and the Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) completed a 29 hour interstellar dust observation.

Thursday, May 26 (DOY 146)

The new AceLog program was deployed, replacing the Operations Log (Olog) software. With a Firefox browser, users can now see log entries within 5 minutes of real time, and link directly to the Deep Space Network ground tracking operations Discrepancy Reports (DRs).

Friday, May 27 (DOY 147)

Target Working Team and Orbiter Science Team integrated products for S71, covering orbits 157 through 160 in November 2011 through January 2012, were delivered today. The integrated products are in their final form and no re-integration is planned. The Sequence Implementation Process will kick off on June 23. At this time instrument teams are working on the pointing designs for this sequence.

Saturday, May 28 (DOY 148)

In the past week, 42 Imaging Science (ISS) images were received and distributed. Since Jan. 2004, when Approach Science began, approximately 120,000 VIMS cubes and 244,500 ISS images have been received.

Sunday, May 30 (DOY 149)

For the next couple of weeks, Cassini navigators will be working on Monte, and on testing the new interface on the Network File System (NFS). Monte is the replacement software for the legacy navigation software developed over 40 years ago. Monte is state-of-the-art and fully maintained, and has been used successfully by Phoenix and by nearly all of the currently flying missions for navigation support.

Monday, May 30 (DOY 150)

The apoapsis passage today marked the completion of the 148th orbit of Saturn by Cassini since SOI in 2004. At 67.8 Rs, this is the highest apoapsis since the 2007 close Iapetus encounter, and the highest for the remainder of the mission.

Tuesday, May 31 (DOY 151)
The most recent Cassini-Huygens Analysis and Results of the Mission (CHARM) teleconference was held today. The topic: “Seasonal Storms on Saturn: New Views from Cassini.” A PDF of the presentation package may be obtained at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/video/products/MultimediaProductsCharm/. An audio recording of the presentation was made and will be linked to the same location within a few days.