Cassini Weekly Significant Events for 01/10/02 – 01/16/02

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday, January 16. The Cassini spacecraft is in
an excellent state of health and is operating normally. "Present
Position" web page, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/ .

The C29 sequence concluded operations this week with deregistration
occurring on Sunday, January 13. The C30 background sequence, an
Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) decontamination mini-sequence, and a
Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) functional test mini-sequence
were all successfully uplinked and registered. The background sequence
began execution on Monday, January 14.

Science activities this week included Radio and Plasma Wave Science
(RPWS) Periodic Instrument Maintenance, upload of RPWS and Ultraviolet
Imaging Spectrometer (UVIS) Instrument Expanded Blocks, and execution of
the CIRS functional test mini-sequence.

Spacecraft activities included an Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS)
high-water mark clear, an ACS Periodic Engineering Maintenance including
Backup ALF Injection Loader maintenance, engine gimbal, and Reaction
Wheel Assembly exercises.

Science Planning completed development for the C31 sequence. The Uplink
Office (ULO) has received the necessary input products and held the
Subsequence Generation kick off meeting for this sequence. Science
Planning development of C32 has begun. The Program briefing for this
sequence is scheduled for January 28.

This week JPL hosted members of the Cassini science community and
interested members of the flight team for Cassini’s #27th meeting of the
Project Science Group (PSG).

Mission Assurance has reviewed an updated procedure regarding real-time
commanding. Both the procedure and checklist were extensively reviewed
by flight team members and now become the official version. This
procedure goes into effect immediately and will be used by anyone who is
leading an uplink session, to ensure consistency between sessions.

Mission Assurance completed an additional review of the NASA Lessons
Learned database, for lessons that could be applicable to Cassini.
These lessons will be forwarded to Cassini team members, to ensure that
lessons learned from previous projects are incorporated into the way
Cassini conducts Mission Operations.

The Deep Space Communications Complex Spectrum Processors (DSP) were
decommissioned across the entire Deep Space Network. These are the old
type of open-loop receivers that the Radio Science Receivers are
replacing.

In support of the Uplink Critical Design Review, all action items being
held for uplink were statused and about half (of a total of 143) were
closed. Many of the remaining big-ticket items relate to adaptability,
pointing and Science and Sequence Update Process issues that will be
closed with the delivery of the associated operations concepts.

A Delivery Coordination Meeting was held for MSS D7.6.2. The change was
a minor patch to insert an updated Trajectory Correction Maneuver block
needed by SEQGEN to support TCM-18 scheduled for Cruise 31.

The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) and Space Infrared Telescope Facility
projects have expressed interest in learning from Cassini’s experience
in security and ITAR issues. The team is currently discussing possible
support options. MER is very interested in having security support. A
memo of understanding still needs to be written to establish roles and
support efforts.

The current national focus in grades K-4 is literacy. Cassini Outreach
will be developing ways of being incorporated into the literacy
curriculum (reading, writing) and thus maintain a foothold for science
in early education. Grades 5-8 follow a mixed discipline curriculum
including math and science. For grades 9-12 beta testing has been
performed at some schools where children have been given access to
planetary data sets. The experience has generated a great deal of
excitement on the part of educators and students alike.
Cassini intends to explore this area of education for these grades. The
focus for informal education will be
partnerships with museums, planetariums, and youth groups such as 4-H
and boy and girls clubs.

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.