Cassini Weekly Significant Events for 08/17/00 – 08/23/00
Cassini Weekly Significant Events
for 08/17/00 – 08/23/00
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Tuesday, 08/22. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. The speed of the spacecraft can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" web page ( "http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/today/" )
This week’s activity onboard the spacecraft continued to center on the Command & Data Subsystem Flight Software (CDS FSW) Uplink and Checkout. The CDS team has successfully executed the procedure to patch the software load residing on the solid state recorders and load the on-line string with Version 7.0 of the CDS flight software. This completed the update of both Engineering Flight Computers with Version 7.0 software. Version 7.0 has been operating normally and CDS_A remains prime at this time. A final procedure began that will activate all 10 new telemetry modes and verify several new solid state recorder management capabilities. This will execute over five days and use several Deep Space Network (DSN) passes.
The Telecommunications Team briefed Division 33 engineers and management on the effect superior conjunction had on Cassini’s telecommunication and radiometric performance. The program plans to continue to gather data during conjunction events in order to characterize expected performance during orbital operations, particularly the period around Saturn Orbit Insertion.
A Preliminary Sequence Integration & Validation (SIV) meeting was held this week for the final activity in C21. This is an instrument turn-on sequence that will be uplinked next week and execute after the conclusion of CDS FSW Checkout.
A briefing was held for the Jupiter Science Phase G (C25) portion of the Jupiter Subphase. Phase G covers the period of +72 days from Jupiter closest approach to +120 days and will be the final sequence containing Jupiter observations. Approval was given by the Program Manager for the Science Planning Virtual Team (SPVT) to begin implementation. Later in the week the SPVT held the kickoff meeting for the C25 cruise sequence.
Science Planning presented the post-Jupiter SPVT schedule to the Cassini Design Team. Highlighted was a reduction in development time for the Science Planning portion of sequence generation. Navigation also made a presentation on the Maneuver Automation Process currently in development.
Representatives from the Uplink Operations Team (ULO) and System Engineering (SE) met with Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) personnel to continue development discussions of the Cassini Information Management System (CIMS). Progress continues and a prototype delivery is expected late this year.
Cassini Radio Science Team personnel gave a talk at the Azusa City Library in Azusa, California, to 50 residents from the area. Six hands-on classroom activities/demonstrations have been approved by Media Relations for posting to the Cassini external web site and will appear there shortly. Outreach staff met with members of the Orange County Office of Education and assisted them in the development of their travelling classroom activities on magnetism. This collaboration will continue through the coming months.
Cassini Outreach
Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
