Cassini Weekly Significant Events for 11/29/01 – 12/05/01

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday, December 5. The Cassini spacecraft is in an
excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the
spacecraft’s position and speed can be viewed on the “Present Position” web
page: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/

Recent instrument activities included two Radio and Plasma Wave Science High
Frequency Receiver calibrations. Engineering activities taking place onboard
the spacecraft this week include an autonomous Command & Data Subsystem
Solid State Recorder Memory Load Partition Repair and an Attitude Control
Subsystem high-water mark clear.

Execution of the C29 sequence continues to proceed normally, with the
continued execution of Cassini’s Gravitational Wave Experiment (GWE). From
the start in late November, 10 days out of 40 days of the continuous GWE
have been completed. Instruments other than Radio Science Subsystem remain
in quiet mode, and Magnetospheric and Plasma Science data continues to be
collected and downlinked.

The Spacecraft Operations Office delivered version 7.1 of the Cassini
Spacecraft Analysis Software. This version of the ground software contains
updates to the maneuver design tools required for the maneuver automation
software and updates to the Assisted Load Format tool to support critical
sequence development. In addition, the Command and Data Subsystem flight
software team delivered revision 008 on the latest cycle of Version 9 flight
software. This delivery supports probe relay critical sequence development.
Mission Assurance completed the final edits to a Risk Management Paper for
the 2002 IEEE Aerospace Conference. The paper, Managing Risk for Cassini
During Mission Operations and Data Analysis (MO&DA), describes the Risk
Management Process as developed and implemented for the MO&DA Phase of the
mission. The paper will be presented at the conference in March 2002.

The first input port for the C31 sequence science planning process occurred
this week, in addition to the delivery of the Target Working Teams’ tour
plans for orbits number four through ten.

The Attitude Control team held a peer review of the new energy based smart
burn algorithm for Saturn Orbit Insertion. The board endorsed the team’s
design approach and technical assessment while recommending that the
development schedule be re-examined to provide more margin and time for
testing the new algorithm. The team is currently assessing the fourteen
Requests For Action forms submitted at the review as well as reviewing the
development schedule.

Cassini 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, Calif., manages the Cassini
mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.