NASA Cassini Significant Events 07/28/10 – 08/03/10

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on August 3 from the Deep Space Network tracking complex at Madrid, Spain. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and all subsystems are operating normally. Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the “Present Position” page at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/presentposition/.

Wednesday, July 28 (DOY 209)

An Uplink Readiness Review took place today in preparation for the uplink of new Command & Data Subsystem flight software v10. Tomorrow, the command approval meeting will be held. The patch is planned to go up to the spacecraft in August.

Thursday, July 29 (DOY 210)

A feature story called “Blowing in the Wind: Cassini Helps with Dune Whodunit,” describes how the answer to the mystery of dune patterns on Saturn’s moon Titan did turn out to be blowing in the wind. It just wasn’t from the direction many scientists expected. While circulation models show surface winds streaming generally east-to-west around Titan’s equatorial belt, a new paper and related “perspectives” story find that strong, reverse winds that occur during a short period can do a more effective job of sculpting the dunes. For more information, link to:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20100729/

Friday, July 30 (DOY 211)

The S61 sequence concluded and S62 began execution today at 2010-211T18:51:00. The sequence will run for 37 days and conclude on Sept. 6. During that time there will be one targeted encounter of Enceladus and eighteen non-targeted flybys