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Posted by baalke on March 2, 2007, 4:46 pm
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Cassini Significant Events
for 02/21/07 - 02/27/07
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on Tuesday, February
27, from the Goldstone tracking complex. 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" web page at
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm .
Wednesday, February 21 (DOY 052):
On Thursday, February 1, tour PF6h9 was selected as the preferred tour
to be used for the extended mission proposal to NASA Headquarters. The
tour has now been renamed "XM0" which is a bit less unwieldy.
Development for XM0 is progressing. All tweak requests from the
science
community were submitted by February. 16.
Tweaks will be analyzed and worked with the requesters and project to
determine their feasibility. Tweaks that survive this process will be
presented to the science community with two weeks for analysis towards
a
project-wide extended mission reference trajectory decision at the
beginning of May. A decision from NASA Headquarters on the extended
mission proposal made on February 15 is expected by the end of March.
The most recent Cassini video update is now available and addresses
the
Titan 23 flyby on January 13. To access the update, link to:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/video-details.cfm?videoID=146
Thursday, February 22 (DOY 053):
Cassini passed by Titan today at an altitude of 1000 kilometers for
the
Titan 25 flyby. Spacecraft Operations reported that the peak thruster
duty cycle was approximately 28 percent. The RADAR swath for this
flyby
was designed to cross over several prior swaths for a geodetic tie
point
and stereo imaging opportunities, and mapping of the polar trailing
hemisphere area for possible lakes.
Additional science opportunities included Imaging Science Subsystem
observations at 650 m/pixel resolution in the second-most northern
latitude viewed in the tour, and Composite Infrared Spectrometer
(CIRS)
acquisition of data for temperature maps, and mapping of the limb
region
for hydrocarbons. Finally, the Visual and Infrared Mapping
Spectrometer
obtained its first view of the upper northern hemisphere.
Saturday, February 24 (DOY 055):
Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #95, the Titan 25 cleanup maneuver scheduled
for Sunday, February 25, has been cancelled. Processing one more day
of
tracking data confirmed the conclusions arrived at during the Friday
OTM-095 Navigation review. The orbit determination solution moved
about
20 meters in the T25 B-Plane, and 12 kilometers in the T26 B-Plane.
OTM-95 delta-V decreased from 165 mm/sec to 159 mm/s with a
corresponding decrease in the cancellation cost from 177 mm/s to 164
mm/s. A reaction wheel bias will be uplinked to the spacecraft in lieu
of the maneuver.
Monday, February 26 (DOY 057):
The final sequence development process for the S30 sequence kicked off
today.
A kick-off meeting was also scheduled today for a live Inertial Vector
Propagator update to occur on March 6, targeting Rhea with CIRS as the
driving instrument. Modeling results indicated that the targeting
errors
were very small. As a result, the meeting, the rest of the process,
and
the update were cancelled.
Tuesday, February 27 (DOY 058):
A Cassini-Huygens Analysis and Results of the Mission (CHARM)
teleconference for professional science communicators and educators
was
held today. The topic: Dunes on Titan. CHARM is a monthly
teleconference
where scientists present recent science findings from the
Cassini-Huygens mission. Presentation packages are available for all
previous telecons. Audio recordings are also made available and posted
as soon as their companion transcripts are complete. For access to
previous presentations link to:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/products/CHARM.cfm
An AACS Inertial Reference Unit (IRU) calibration was completed today
on
board the spacecraft. This incorporated the IRU-A scale factor updates
that were uplinked recently with the A8.7.5 flight software (FSW)
update. FSW normalization for AACS A8.7.5 is scheduled for March 4,
2007.
An Encounter Strategy Meeting was held today for Titan flybys T26 and
T27, and maneuvers numbered from 98-100. This covers the period from
March 10 through March 26.
Many Saturn Observation Campaign (SOC) members around the world
continue
to hold observation nights while Saturn is so well placed for viewing.
March 3 offers a bonus! A full lunar eclipse in much of the world, and
Saturn too! The eclipse will be visible from parts of all seven
continents including the eastern half of North America. Contact your
local SOC member for viewing opportunities in your locale.
http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/members.cfm
Over the last several months, Cassini's orbit has climbed to higher
and
higher inclinations, providing never-before-seen views of Saturn from
perspectives high above and below the planet's rings. An image release
is available giving access to black and white and color mosaics, as
well
as a dramatic movie sequence showing the rings as they appeared to
Cassini while it sped from south to north, rapidly crossing the ring
plane. Beginning with Titan 26 on March 10, Cassini's highly inclined
orbits around Saturn will be progressively lowered so that, by late
June
-- three years after entering orbit -- the spacecraft will once more
be
orbiting in the ring plane. Look for the new images and movies on the
main page at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Wrap up:
The Cassini-Huygens mission 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,
manages the
Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington,
D.C. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.
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