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.

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