Cassini Significant Events for 03/28/02 – 04/03/02

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday, April 3. The Cassini spacecraft is in an
excellent state of health and is 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/cassini/english/where/ .

Instrument activities this week included loading Ultraviolet Imaging
Spectrograph flight software to RAM, execution of this software, and a
Radio and Plasma Wave Science flight software checkout. Additional on
board activities included Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) 18, a
Reaction Wheel Assembly spin down test, and an autonomous CDS Solid
State Recorder memory load partition repair.

TCM 18 was successfully completed with a burn duration of 9.85 seconds.
The maneuver served for tweaking Cassini’s trajectory and for routine
maintenance of the propulsion system. The flight team used this
opportunity to demonstrate numerous operational changes which will be
required during the Saturn orbital tour when maneuvers are much more
frequent. Among the new items tested were command files uplinked and
executed during same Deep Space Network pass, the maneuver began and
ended Earth-pointed instead of Sun-pointed as is performed in cruise,
tour-like operational modes were used, and it was the first operational
use of the Maneuver Automation Software.

Three waivers have been approved as part of the development process for
C32. One additional waiver was submitted by the Composite Infrared
Spectrometer team and will be dispositioned next week. No simulation
needs have been identified for C32. As a result, all simulation
activities have been removed from the development schedule.

The Project approved the initial plan for C33 at a Project Briefing held
this week. The first delivery of detailed commands is due in early
April.

The Cassini team supported a three-day ISO audit conducted at JPL this
week. There were no findings against the program.

Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) personnel delivered version 1.3 of the
ISS Flight Software to the Cassini Program Software Library.

A Deep Space Mission Systems (DSMS) Delivery Review for Advanced
Multi-Mission Operations System (AMMOS) SEQ 25.3 was held this week.
High Speed Simulation, APGEN, and Science Opportunity Analyzer were
included in this review.

All CD/tapes for the first phase of Science Operations and Planning
Computer (SOPC) upgrades to Solaris 7 and Tracking, Telemetry, Command
and Data Management Services (TTC&DM) Version 26.3.1 have been shipped
to the distributed operations sites. Two sites have completed their
upgrades with only a few minor issues. The second phase of shipments
will begin mid April.

A Delivery Design Review was held for DSMS TTC&DM Version 26.4 to
obtain approval from the projects. After the review a problem was found
in the Cassini Integrated Test Laboratory (ITL) relating to filler
packets for mini-packet data. Cassini has requested an emergency build
for this fix.

System Engineering gave two classes reviewing the contents of the
Anomaly Response Plan. The class is part of continuing education and
refresher courses available to program members. Mission Assurance held a
Program internal training session on the Problem Failure Reporting
System. The class focused on the Cassini Anomaly Reporting Process and
the institutional electronic failure reporting system. While all types
of failure reports were touched on, emphasis for Cassini during mission
operations was placed on the Incident Surprise Anomaly reports. These
classes will be conducted as needed during mission operations, to ensure
that team members are appropriately trained in the Anomaly Reporting
Process.

The Cassini Education and Public Outreach Office held a Critical Design
Review with outside partners and NASA personnel attending. The plan was
passed. Further activities involve collecting Request for Action inputs
from participants, incorporating comments for the next review, and
working with Headquarters personnel on final edits.

Outreach personnel gave workshops at the National Science Teachers
Association (NSTA) Conference in San Diego the end of March. NSTA is
the largest venue for NASA’s participation with the educational
community.

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..