Status Report

NASA Cassini Significant Events for 09/04/03 – 09/10/03

By SpaceRef Editor
September 12, 2003
Filed under , ,
NASA Cassini Significant Events for 09/04/03 – 09/10/03
cassini

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Canberra
tracking station on Wednesday, September 10. 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/operations/present-position.cfm .


On-board activities this week included a Composite InfraRed Spectrometer
radiator test, reaction wheel assembly friction test, transition to and
from reaction wheel control and thrusters in support of Trajectory
Correction Maneuver (TCM) 19a, and execution of TCM19a.


TCM19a executed properly. A maneuver wrap-up meeting is scheduled for
next week. Until then, the Spacecraft Operations Office has released
some preliminary statistics: the burn began execution at 253T20:00:00
spacecraft event time, with a duration of 197.88 seconds and a delta V
of 0.122 m/s.


A Sub-Sequence Generation Sequence Change Request approval meeting was
held as part of the development process for the C40 background
sequence. Merged Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation
integrated sequence products have been released for review.


At a scoping meeting held this week, project management approved a
proposed plan for the C43 sequence. A few issues remain open, one of
which is the need for 70 meter antenna coverage to support the Probe
relay sequence demonstration and data playback in February of 2004.
This is a highly contested time due to Mars Exploration Rover
activities. The appropriate requests have been submitted to the DSN and
the issue is being worked.


All teams and offices are currently working on presentations for the
Operations Readiness Review to be held in October. System Engineering,
Uplink Operations, Instrument Operations, and Navigation have presented
drafts and are in the process of incorporating comments.


A delivery coordination meeting was held for the Assisted Load Format
Tool version 9.2. The software has been approved.


A Software Requirements Certification Review delivery meeting for the
Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) v7.0.0 flight software (FSW)
build was held mid-August. The FSW was accepted for delivery to the
project software library and approved for processing to uplink as part
of C39 sequence activities. Approval of the FSW for operations was
tentatively approved, with full approval to be given with successful
closure of three action items. All have now been completed and the FSW
build is fully approved for operations uplink. This FSW is scheduled to
be sent to the spacecraft September 11.


Mission Assurance supported a JPL/Aerospace Corporation Risk Management
Workshop this week. The group has been working to develop a coordinated
Risk Management Process, including the creation of a "story book" of
common threads and lessons learned. The products produced by this group
will be presented at next spring’s System Engineering and Risk
Management Symposium, sponsored by the Aerospace Corporation.


The Hubble telescope has recently taken some excellent images of
Saturn.

SpaceRef staff editor.