Significant Event Report for Week Ending 9/13/2002

Cassini Significant Event Report

For Week Ending 09/13/02

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Tuesday, September 10. 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.

On-board activities this week included Radio and Plasma Wave Science High Frequency Receiver calibrations, a Composite InfraRed Spectrometer functional test and power-off, clearing of the ACS high water marks, uplink of the Probe Checkout (PCO) mini-sequence, and Solid State Power Switch trip algorithm enable/disable in support of PCO.

Proposed changes to the C34 preliminary sequence integration and validation products were distributed to the
Sequence team. Review comments have been received and incorporated into the package for next week's preliminary approval meeting.

Multi-mission Image Processing Laboratory personnel met with representatives from the Planetary Data System (PDS), and Instrument Operations archiving to resolve issues relating to Level 1A product labeling, compliance with PDS standards, and Science Archive Working Group plans.

ACS delivered Flight Software version A8.6.3 for testing. This is expected to be the last version change for ACS A8.

The Spacecraft Operations Office completed a Project Review for ACS and CDS Flight Software in-flight checkout. DSN tracking requests for the February - April '03 timeframe are currently being negotiated.

A Delivery Coordination Meeting was held to release the PC version of the Science Opportunity Analyzer (SOA) tool. With the exception of Opportunity Search and APGEN communication, this version of SOA provides the same functionality, and limitations, of the Solaris release. Support for Opportunity Search on PCs is being pursued. There are no plans to include APGEN communication. Co-Is will be able to download the software from the Cassini Web server.

Personnel from System Engineering and Mission Support and Services Office participated in a review of Navigation hardware requirements. The NAV team is in an evaluation phase with a goal of selecting and procuring an acceptable architecture/platform by early second quarter of FY03 to support tour operations.

The NASA educational poster "Unveiling the Myth of Saturn" is available on NASA Spacelink. The poster cover is a depiction of the mythological story of Saturn combined with images of space-age exploration. Additional resources include information about the Cassini mission to Saturn, names and stories about the mythological god Saturn, and a classroom activity for students in grades 4-8.

Additional information about Cassini-Huygens is online at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Cassini will begin orbiting Saturn on July 1, 2004, and release its piggybacked Huygens probe about six months later for descent through the thick atmosphere of the moon Titan. Cassini-Huygens is a cooperative mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

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