Cassini Significant Event Report
For Week Ending 10/20/00

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, October 18th. 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 the start of the fourth instance of the 5-Day Repeating Template for Jupiter observations, Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) Instrument Expanded Block (IEB) load, memory readout and high voltage reset, Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) Body Vector Table (BVT) update to optimize pointing for the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) internal data prioritization, Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) flight software patch, masking of an Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem (AACS) tachometer monitor, reinforcement of Latch Valve 11 open, High Watermark clear, and Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) momentum desaturation.

A Preliminary Sequence Approval Meeting was held for cruise sequence 23. At this meeting it was decided not to approve the sequence in order to make an additional update to enhance Jupiter science return. The update has since been incorporated. The Final Sequence Approval meeting will be held next week with uplink of the sequence occurring at the end of the month.

The Jupiter Science Planning Virtual Team (SPVT) implementation activity for C24 completed this week with all products handed off to the Sequence Virtual Team (SVT). The success of this challenging effort is the result of the many long hours and dedication on the part of the Science Planning Team, other elements of the JPL Flight Team, and the distributed science operations sites. The C24 sequence generation process began this week. C24 will be in development over the two months with execution beginning in mid January.

The Mission Planning Virtual Team (MPVT) began a post-Jupiter scoping activity. This effort will last 6 weeks and will provide the Science Planning Team with a list of specific activities, approximate dates, consumable budgets, DSN coverage, and liens that apply for the Quiet Cruise and Space Science subphases.

Version 11 of the Saturn Orbit Insertion sequence was delivered to the Integration Test Laboratory.

The Cassini Navigation Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) Instrument and Frame Kernel Files (IK/FK) have been officially released. A list of references and a Cassini Frames Hierarchy diagram was also distributed. All materials are available on the Cassini Spacecraft, Planet, Instruments, C-matrix, and Events kernels (SPICE) web page.

Outreach staffed an exhibit and teacher workshop at the California Science Teachers Association annual convention in Sacramento last weekend. Jupiter results and classroom lessons were featured. Overall attendance was 2,300. The Millennium Flyby Travel Guide is in print and is also available for download from http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby/travel.html .

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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