Cassini Update - May 11, 2007
- From: baalke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 11 May 2007 16:09:17 -0700
Cassini Significant Events
for 05/02/07 - 05/08/07
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on Tuesday, May 8,
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 located at
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm.
Friday, May 4 (DOY 124):
Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #108 was performed today. This is the
apoapsis
maneuver setting up for the Titan 30 encounter on May 12. The main
engine
burn began at 1:15 PM PDT. Telemetry immediately after the maneuver
showed
the burn duration was 34.51 seconds, giving a delta-V of 5.6 m/s. All
subsystems reported nominal performance after the maneuver.
An encounter strategy meeting was held today to cover the period
between May
12 and May 28, Titan flybys T30 and T31, and maneuvers 110-112.
The S29 sequence concluded and S30 began execution today at
2007-124T22:00:00 SCET. The sequence will run for 38 days and
conclude on
June 11, 2007. During that time there will be two targeted encounters
with
Titan and two non-targeted flybys - one of Tethys and one of
Epimetheus.
Seven OTMs are scheduled, numbered 109 through 115.
Science at the start of S30 included rings science inbound to Saturn
periapsis with all the Optical Remote Sensing instruments
participating.
Additionally, the Imaging Science Subsystem and Ultraviolet Imaging
Spectrograph took some snap shots of the tiny moon Epimetheus. The
spacecraft will be performing a roll so that the Magnetometer
Subsystem team
can calibrate their instrument.
Monday, May 7 (DOY 127):
All Teams and Instruments supported this month's NASA Quarterly
review.
The preliminary delivery for S33 input products occurred today as part
of
the Science Operations Plan Update process. The files will be merged
tomorrow, analyzed, and delivered to the teams for review. The
official port
for this process is scheduled for Tuesday, May 15.
Tuesday, May 8 (DOY 128):
Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #109 was performed today. This is the
approach
maneuver setting up for the Titan 30 encounter on May 12. The reaction
control subsystem burn began at 8:30 PM PDT. Telemetry immediately
after the
maneuver showed the burn duration was 14.5 seconds, giving a delta-V
of
0.025 m/s. All subsystems reported nominal performance after the
maneuver.
A news release entitled "Cassini Finds that Storms Power Saturn's Jet
Streams" was released today on the Cassini website. Research
performed on
data from Cassini suggests eddies, or giant rotating storms, are the
"engine" powering Saturn's jet stream winds. Jet streams are motions
in an
atmosphere that carry clouds rapidly eastward or westward. The eddies
get
fed into the jet streams in much the same way that rotating gears can
power
a conveyor belt. It was previously thought the conveyor belt -- in
this
thinking the opposite: the rotating eddies power the jet streams. For
more
information and the full article link to:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=744
Wrap up:
Check out the Cassini web site at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov for the
latest
press releases and images.
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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