Cassini Significant Event Report
For Week Ending 12/15/00

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking station on Wednesday, December 13th. 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 completion of the Phase C partial template for Jupiter observations. During the current period (Jupiter -25 days to Jupiter -10 days) instrument activity begins to vary from a repeating template to more individualized observations as Cassini nears closest approach.

Activities include the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) 2x2 movie, Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) North/South scans, Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) Baseline Test, Coordinated CAPS / Hubble Space Telescope observation #1, Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) atmospheric cyclic observations, Jupiter Ring Movie, and Europa Observations.

Instrument Operations (IO) and the Multi Mission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL) produced and delivered 1897 ISS images and 32 VIMS cubes this week bringing the totals for Jupiter Encounter to date up to 13029 images and 115 cubes.

The Spacecraft Office (SCO) held a Flight Software/Critical Sequence Management Review this week. Good progress is being made in assigning and closing out the Action Items from the critical sequence reviews held in the fall. Also of note was the fact the Attitude Control Software will be using the latest version of the TLD compiler for their next release.

The Science Planning Team (SPVT) activity for the C25 cruise sequence completed with the handoff of the final product to the Sequence Team (SVT). This now concludes the SPVT development activities for the Jupiter flyby. Sequence generation has begun with the C25 kickoff meeting and the release of stripped subsequences for SVT members to populate with commands.

Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) personnel within Deep Space Mission Services (DSMS) delivered a preliminary set of new configuration codes for the new equipment at the DSS complexes that will be used to support Cruise Radio Science activities, primarily the Gravitational Wave Experiment (GWE).

A Delivery Coordination Meeting (DCM) was held to review the testing for Science Opportunity Analyzer (SOA). Installation will begin this week and will take up to 7 days to complete.

Cassini Information Management System (CIMS) developers from JPL and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) met to review the results of completed Beta testing. Clarification of details, and OPNAV and TCM interaction is underway.

A Jupiter webcast was held to discuss Jupiter results to date and future Jupiter plans. Participants from various Cassini teams attended.

Last week a discussion of the Cassini project, and promotion for an hour-long show to be filmed next week was broadcast live by REAL ORANGE at KOCE-TV in Orange County, and Outreach made a presentation to more than 60 teachers at the southwest regional meeting of the National Science Teachers Association.

The Saturn Educator Guide and a postcard commemorating the Jupiter Millennium Flyby are complete and have been delivered to the printer for reproduction. An expanded CD-ROM containing "Ways of Seeing" as well as materials related to the Educator Guide are due back from reproduction this 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 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, Calif., manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

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