Cassini Significant Event Report
For Week Ending 10/06/00

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, 10/04. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. The speed of the spacecraft can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" web page.

Activities this week included a Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) Friction Test, Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) power on, Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) articulation correction, Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) Low Energy Magnetospheric Measurement Subsystem (LEMMS) platform rotation, and a repeat of the Radio Science Subsystem (RSS) X-up, Ka-down activity from ICO-1.

RADAR powered on and warmed up nominally in preparation for an on board simulation of Titan encounters. The GENMOS_R module was used for the first time in flight for this activity to obtain rasters of Jupiter and the Sun. Initial plots show very good results.

This week saw the start of execution of the "repeating template" designed for Jupiter observations. The template is five days in duration, contains a specific set of observations, and will repeat continuously until ten days into the C23 sequence when a change in observations is desired. The first Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) Jupiter downlink contained 383 images and was supported by Instrument Operations (IO) and the Multi Mission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL). The data files were automatically delivered to the ISS Team Leader at University of Arizona and preliminary analysis shows excellent quality data.

CDA personnel proudly reported that 91 mass spectra were obtained within the first 3 days of the template. The spectra were predominantly detected when the instrument was pointing toward Jupiter. Altogether around 2700 events were obtained. Instrument status is nominal. The CDA team thanks everyone involved who helped obtain these great results.

Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) personnel reported that the instrument came through the first 3 days of the Jupiter template in excellent shape. The RPWS portion of the sequence appears to have executed flawlessly. For the first time, internal data management tools were used to count packet production, compare actuals to modeled usage, and decide on board to execute a high rate observation near the end of the Goldstone observation period using some of the difference between allocation and actual usage. The RPWS team is extremely happy with the first template results and commends the entire flight team for a job well done!

Science Planning is now in the process of creating the products required to hand off the C24 sequence to the Sequence Virtual Team (SVT). Additionally, the first product delivery occurred for the C25 SPVT implementation activity. The C25 sequence is the last sequence that contains Jupiter-related observations.

A Satellite Orbiter Science Team (SOST) meeting was held to continue the discussion and integration of the icy satellite flybys for Tour.

Mission Planning hosted a Working Group Teleconference discussing the Saturn dust particle model and its affect on the Cassini main engines.

This past week was a period of high daily support for the Mission Support and Services Office (MSSO). Over the next sequences the team will be supporting about 2-3 tracks per week, with very intense data collection.

The MSSO Requirements and Design Review was held this week. The review went smoothly with valuable contributions made by presenters and attendees.

The Jupiter Millennium Flyby website is making good progress towards its public launch within the next week.

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.

Media Relations Office
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Pasadena, Calif. 91109.
Telephone (818) 354-5011