Cassini Weekly Significant Events for 11/08/01 – 11/14/01

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday, November 14. 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 include two Radio and Plasma Wave Science
High Frequency Receiver calibrations, the conclusion of the Visual and
Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) radiator test, VIMS set to sleep
mode, and the Ka-Band Exciter and Ka-Band Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier
powered off. Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft
this week include an autonomous Command & Data Subsystem Solid State
Recorder Memory Load Partition Repair, a transition from Reaction Wheel
Assembly (RWA) to Reaction Control Subsystem control and an RWA unload. A
minisequence was uplinked in preparation for the upcoming, four-day Probe
Relay test.

The Radio Science Subsystem supported a Ka-Band Uplink Exciter/Transmitter
demo track this week. The new Ka-band acquisition template was used to
uplink to the spacecraft, and the Ka-Band Translator successfully locked
onto the signal. Later in the week, the Cassini Radio Science Ops Team
accompanied the JPL Principal Investigator for the Gravitational Wave
Experiment (GWE), Dr. John Armstrong, to the Goldstone Deep Space
Communications Complex (DSCC) and briefed the station operators on the
GWE. While there, the Cassini DSS-25 Upgrade Task manager led a tour of
the new facilities at the DSCC for the Radio Science team.

The first delivery of products to the Icy Satellite Science and Uplink
Verification activity occurred this week. These products will be merged
and delivered to the Attitude Control Subsystem team for detailed analysis
with the Kinematic Prediction Tool/ Inertial Vector Propagator software.

Imaging Science Subsystem anomaly investigation continued with complete
documentation of the C28 results being sent to the JPL Observational
Systems Division contamination engineers.

The delivery schedule for the Mission Sequence Subsystem D 8.0 delivery
has been reassessed due to complications with some telemetry commands. The
planned delivery has been slipped out just over a week, but there is
potential to regain the original date as a result of reduced dependency on
other software deliveries.

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.