Cassini Update - November 16, 2007
- From: baalke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:07:09 -0800 (PST)
Cassini Significant Events
for 11/07/07 - 11/13/07
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on Tuesday, Nov. 13,
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" page at
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm.
Wednesday, Nov. 7 (DOY 311):
Cassini was featured in the October issue of National Geographic
magazine with a full-page article on Radar images of the seas. Cassini
was also featured in two special issues this fall celebrating 50 years
in space: Discover magazine's "The History of Space Travel" and Sky
and
Telescope's "Space: 50 Years and Counting." And just in time for the
holidays, Cassini is on the cover of the December issue of Sky and
Telescope with a sweeping view of Saturn.
The S39 Science Operations Plan Update process kicked off today. The
official input port will occur on Dec. 5 and the process will conclude
on Dec. 21, just in time for Christmas.
Thursday, Nov. 8 (DOY 312):
An encounter strategy meeting was held today to cover the period
between
Nov. 19 and Dec. 5, Titan flybys T37 and T38, and maneuvers 134-136.
Imaging Science (ISS) continued monitoring the low latitudes of Saturn
around 0-15N, while the Magnetospheric and Plasma Science instruments
monitored the solar wind, and the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph
observed the distribution of interplanetary hydrogen.
Friday, Nov. 9 (DOY 313):
An AACS Periodic Engineering Maintenance (PEM) activity executed
today.
PEMs are performed every 90 days, and exercise the Engine Gimbal
Actuators and the backup reaction wheel assembly, RWA-3. In the RWA
exercise, the wheel is commanded to +100 rpm, -100 rpm, 0 rpm, then
turned off.
Monday, Nov. 12 (DOY 316)
Twenty-seven years ago today, the Voyager 1 spacecraft flew by Saturn
and Titan. The Voyager mission paved the way for future interest in a
Saturn orbiter with multiple visits to the satellite Titan. The
Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan can trace its roots back
to
the efforts of the Voyager team.
After completing an ISS G ring movie and downlinking the day's new
discoveries to Earth, Cassini turned to the F ring for ISS monitoring.
This was followed by UVIS mapping the Saturn system in the far and
extreme ultraviolet. These EUV/FUV surveys are designed to map the
planet's aurorae and study the aerosols in the planet's stratosphere.
Cassini's location, still over two million kilometers from Saturn, is
well suited to such long-range scans of the Saturnian system. Tomorrow
ISS will track the moons Pan, Pandora, Epimetheus, Pallene and Calypso
to better pin down their orbits. Then the Visual and Infrared Mapping
Spectrometer will observe the Pleiades as part of regularly scheduled
sensor calibration.
Tuesday, Nov. 13 (DOY 317)
Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday next week, there will be no
Significant
Events Report. The report the following week will cover a two-week
period. Your homework for over the holiday is assigned by the folks
from
the Saturn Observation Campaign: Saturn, with its dramatically closed
rings, is a beautiful morning target, placed between brighter Venus
and
Mars. At west quadrature in November - 90 degrees west of the sun as
seen from Earth - Saturn rises at midnight, reaches its highest point
at
dawn and looks most three dimensional this month and next. Get out
there
and take a look!
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.
.
- Prev by Date: Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: November 12-16, 2007
- Next by Date: NASA Selects 23 Participating Scientists for MESSENGER Mission to Mercury
- Previous by thread: Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: November 12-16, 2007
- Next by thread: NASA Selects 23 Participating Scientists for MESSENGER Mission to Mercury
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
