Cassini Significant Events 05/02/07 – 05/08/07

Cassini Significant Events 05/02/07 - 05/08/07

May 10, 2007

(Source: Cassini Project)

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 case, the jet streams -- powered the rotating eddies, but now scientists are 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