NASA Cassini Significant Events 03/24/10 - 03/30/10

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on March 30 from the Deep Space Network tracking complex at Madrid, Spain. 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/mission/presentposition/.

Wednesday, March 24 (DOY 083)

A member of the Cassini Outreach staff was an invited speaker at the 8th annual All-Manitoba First Nation Science Fair Mar. 24th and 25th. First Nations communities are found throughout Manitoba and are home to the aboriginal people of the province. Over 400 students, their families and teachers from 28 schools attended and received Cassini handouts.

In preparation for the solid state recorder on Cassini to be repartitioned for Extended Extended Mission operations, Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) test files have been generated and verified through Instrument Operations Multi-mission Image Processing Laboratory, Mission Sequence Software and Spacecraft Operations Office ground software tools.

Thursday, March 25 (DOY 084)

This week Radio Science performed Ka-TWTA maintenance and the Magnetometer performed calibration rolls. The Cassini Plasma Spectrometer obtained survey measurements, and the Magnetospheric and Plasma Science Instrument teams took measurements for the magnetospheric boundaries, solar wind, and auroral campaigns. Imaging Science (ISS), the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) and Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) performed another observation in the Titan monitoring campaign, and all the Optical Remote Sensing instruments participated in Titan cloud monitoring campaign observations. UVIS conducted mosaic scans of Saturn's magnetosphere and performed a stellar calibration. CIRS observed Saturn, measuring oxygen compounds of H2O, and CO2 in the stratosphere as a function of latitude. ISS performed observations in support of the Satellite Orbit Campaign, observed the transit of Rhea across Janus, Janus across Titan, and Rhea across Epimetheus, and turned to image the still nearly edge-on, post-equinox E-Ring.

Friday, March 26 (DOY 085)

Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) #240 was performed today. This was the apoapsis maneuver setting up for the Titan T67 and Dione D2 encounters on April 5 and 7. The main engine burn began at 8:29 AM PDT. Telemetry immediately after the maneuver showed a burn duration of 17.53 seconds, giving a delta-V of 3.00 m/s. All subsystems reported nominal performance after the maneuver.

Saturday, March 27 (DOY 086)

Sequence leads began uplinking the Instrument Expanded Block files needed to support the S59 sequence. Eight files went up today. A second set of files will go up on Monday, and the background sequence will follow on Apr. 1.

Monday, March 29 (DOY 088)

A news release entitled "1980s Video Icon Glows on Saturn Moon" discusses the highest-resolution-yet temperature map and images of Saturn's icy moon Mimas obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The data reveal surprising patterns on the surface of the small moon, including unexpected hot regions that resemble 'Pac-Man' eating a dot, and striking bands of light and dark in crater walls. View the release at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20100329/.

Port 3 Spacecraft Activity Sequence Files were due today as part of the Science Operations Plan process for S61. The files will be merged and released for review tomorrow.

A Go/No Go meeting was held today for a Live Inertial Vector Propagator update to occur on Apr. 5 for the Titan T67 encounter. It's a "Go" so vectors will be modified for one ISS and three CIRS observations.

The S60 Simulation Coordination meeting was held today. After collecting inputs from the teams, it was determined that the only activity to be tested will be the Radio Science DOY 169-170 Saturn occultation Live Movable Block.

Tuesday, March 30 (DOY 089)

Port 2 Spacecraft Activity Sequence Files were due today as part of the Science Operations Plan process for S62. The files will be merged and released for review tomorrow. The Cassini-Huygens Analysis and Results of the Mission (CHARM) teleconference for March was held today. The topic: "Titan: Ingredients for Life." A PDF of the presentation package may be obtained at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/video/products/MultimediaProductsCharm/. An audio recording of this presentation will be linked to the same location within a few days.

Voyager: Mission Log (01-01-2010 - 01-29-2010)

Voyager Mission Operations Status Report # 2010-01-01, Week Ending January 1, 2010

Command Transmission & Verification Operations

Voyager 1 command operations consisted of the uplink of a Command Loss Timer Reset on 12/29 [DOY 363/1515z]. The spacecraft received the command.

There were no command operations in support of Voyager 2 during the period.

Sequence Generation Operations

Start sequence development of CCSL B147.

Data Return Operations

Voyager 1 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 90.2 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 1 of which 63.9 hours were large aperture coverage. There were two schedule and one real-time changes made. The two schedule changes extended existing tracks. On 12/26 [DOY 360] the DSS-26/25 array track was extended 1.3 hours. On 12/29 [DOY 363] the existing DSS-14 track was extended 1.9 hours. The real-time change substituted on 01/01 [DOY 001] 6.8 hours of DSS-14 support for 6.8 hours of the array DSS-25/15 due to a red antenna at DSS-15 [DR G109907]. The total actual support was 93.4 hours of which 72.6 hours were large aperture coverage.

There was one significant outage of 0.5 hours on 12/29 [DOY 363] due to rain at DSS-63 [DR M105596].

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. One frame of GS-4 data was recorded this week. A second frame of GS-4 data was recorded on December 26. The EDR backlog is 10 day.

Voyager 2 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 74.0 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 2 of which 46.7 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made or significant outages during the period. Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. The EDR backlog is 9 days.

Flight System Performance

Voyager 1 performance was nominal during this report period.

Voyager 2 performance was nominal during this report period.

PROPELLANT/POWER CONSUMABLES STATUS AS OF THIS REPORT

Spacecraft	Consumption One Week (Gm)	Propellant Remaining (Kg)	Output (Watts)	Margin (Watts)
1	5.93	26.37	275.2	29
2	5.10	28.01	276.6	36

RANGE, VELOCITY AND ROUND TRIP LIGHT TIME AS OF THIS REPORT

	Voyager 1	Voyager 2
Distance from the Sun (Km)	16,781,000,000	13,619,000,000
Distance from the Sun (Mi)	10,427,000,000	8,463,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Km)	16,890,000,000	13,742,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Mi)	10,495,000,000	8,539,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Km)	21,656,000,000	20,633,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Mi)	13,456,000,000	12,820,000,000
Velocity Relative to Sun (Km/sec)	17.074	15.493
Velocity Relative to Sun (Mi/hr)	38,194	34,657
Velocity Relative to Earth (Km/sec)	30.570	36.175
Velocity Relative to Earth (Mi/hr)	68,382	80,921
Round Trip Light Time (hh:mm:ss)	31:17:02	25:27:48

Voyager Mission Operations Status Report # 2010-01-08, Week Ending January 8, 2010

Command Transmission & Verification Operations

Voyager 1 command operations consisted of the uplink of HPOINT PTR MRO, Command Loss Timer Reset, CCSL A074 and AHELIO CCS SID MROs on 01/05 [DOY 005/1254z]. The spacecraft received all commands sent and the CCSL was verified.

There were no command operations in support of Voyager 2 during the period.

Sequence Generation Operations

Continue sequence development of CCSL B147.

Data Return Operations

Voyager 1 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 70.3 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 1 of which 32.0 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made.

There were two significant outages during the period. The first outage of 1.0 hours on 01/07 [DOY 007] was caused by rain during the 55/54 array [DR M105608]. The second outage of 0.5 hours occurred the next day on 01/08 [DOY 008] and resulted from an antenna problem at DSS-15 during the beginning of the 15/26 array [DR G109923].

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. One frame of GS-4 data was recorded this week. A second frame of GS-4 data was recorded on January 1. The EDR backlog is 1 day.

Voyager 2 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 64.2 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 2 of which 33.9 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made or significant outages during the period.

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. The EDR backlog is 2 days.

Flight System Performance

Voyager 1 performance was nominal during this report period. Activities included DTR Maintenance on 1/5 [DOY 005] And a PMPCAL on 1/6 [DOY 006].

Voyager 2 performance was nominal during this report period.

PROPELLANT/POWER CONSUMABLES STATUS AS OF THIS REPORT

Spacecraft	Consumption One Week (Gm)	Propellant Remaining (Kg)	Output (Watts)	Margin (Watts)
1	5.39	26.36	275.1	29
2	5.12	28.00	276.5	36

RANGE, VELOCITY AND ROUND TRIP LIGHT TIME AS OF THIS REPORT

	Voyager 1	Voyager 2
Distance from the Sun (Km)	16,791,000,000	13,628,000,000
Distance from the Sun (Mi)	10,434,000,000	8,468,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Km)	16,893,000,000	13,752,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Mi)	10,497,000,000	8,545,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Km)	21,674,000,000	20,654,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Mi)	13,468,000,000	12,834,000,000
Velocity Relative to Sun (Km/sec)	17.074	15.493
Velocity Relative to Sun (Mi/hr)	38,193	34,656
Velocity Relative to Earth (Km/sec)	28.988	35.123
Velocity Relative to Earth (Mi/hr)	64,843	78,568
Round Trip Light Time (hh:mm:ss)	31:17:22	25:28:58

Voyager Mission Operations Status Report # 2010-01-15, Week Ending January15, 2010

Command Transmission & Verification Operations

Voyager 1 command operations consisted of the uplink of a Command Loss Timer Reset on 01/12 [DOY 012/1515z]. The spacecraft received the command.

Voyager 2 command operations consisted of the uplink of seven bracketed Command Loss Timer Resets sent on five-minute centers using 0.5 Hz steps on 01/09 [DOY 009/0107z]. The spacecraft received three of the seven commands sent.

Sequence Generation Operations

Continue sequence development of CCSL B147.

Data Return Operations

Voyager 1 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 68.9 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 1 of which 35.8 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made during the period.

There were two significant outages. The first outage of 1.0 hours occurred on 01/10 [DOY 010] and resulted from an antenna problem at DSS-14 [DR G109931]. The second outage of 2.2 hours on 01/12 [DOY 012] was caused by rain at DSS-63 [DR M105617].

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. One frame of GS-4 data was recorded this week. A second frame of GS-4 data was recorded on January 9. The EDR backlog is 2 day.

Voyager 2 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 68.8 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 2 of which 24.0 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made or significant outages during the period.

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. The EDR backlog is 2 days.

Flight System Performance

Voyager 1 performance was nominal during this report period.

Voyager 2 performance was nominal during this report period. Activity included a PMPCAL on 1/12 [DOY 012].

PROPELLANT/POWER CONSUMABLES STATUS AS OF THIS REPORT

Spacecraft	Consumption One Week (Gm)	Propellant Remaining (Kg)	Output (Watts)	Margin (Watts)
1	5.17	26.36	275.1	29
2	4.84	28.00	276.4	36

RANGE, VELOCITY AND ROUND TRIP LIGHT TIME AS OF THIS REPORT

	Voyager 1	Voyager 2
Distance from the Sun (Km)	16,802,000,000	13,637,000,000
Distance from the Sun (Mi)	10,440,000,000	8,474,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Km)	16,894,000,000	13,760,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Mi)	10,498,000,000	8,550,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Km)	21,691,000,000	20,675,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Mi)	13,478,000,000	12,847,000,000
Velocity Relative to Sun (Km/sec)	17.074	15.492
Velocity Relative to Sun (Mi/hr)	38,193	34,655
Velocity Relative to Earth (Km/sec)	27.392	34.002
Velocity Relative to Earth (Mi/hr)	61,273	76,861
Round Trip Light Time (hh:mm:ss)	31:17:30	25:29:54

Voyager Mission Operations Status Report # 2010-01-22, Week Ending January 22, 2010

Command Transmission & Verification Operations

Voyager 1 command operations consisted of the uplink of a Command Loss Timer Reset on 01/22 [DOY 022/1420z]. The spacecraft received the command.

Voyager 2 command operations consisted of the uplink of seven bracketed Command Loss Timer Resets sent on five-minute centers using 0.5 Hz steps on 01/19 [DOY 019/2122z]. The spacecraft received three of the seven commands sent.

Sequence Generation Operations

Continue sequence development of CCSL B147.

Data Return Operations

Voyager 1 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 77.7 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 1 of which 53.2 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made during the period.

There was one significant outage of 4.5 hours on 01/18 [DOY 018] due to a red antenna at DSS-14 [DR G109960].

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. One frame of GS-4 data was recorded this week. A second frame of GS-4 data was recorded on January 16. The EDR backlog is 9 day.

Voyager 2 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 70.1 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 2 of which 45.8 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made or significant outages during the period.

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. The EDR backlog is 9 days.

Flight System Performance

Voyager 1 performance was nominal during this report period. Activity included implementation of ECR 109289, which moved the GUI patch link from 2016 DOY 350 to 2015 DOY 350.

Voyager 2 performance was nominal during this report period. Activity included two AACS single ID memory readouts of the Unexpected Echoes Patch.

PROPELLANT/POWER CONSUMABLES STATUS AS OF THIS REPORT

Spacecraft	Consumption One Week (Gm)	Propellant Remaining (Kg)	Output (Watts)	Margin (Watts)
1	4.95	26.35	275.0	28
2	4.63	27.99	276.3	35

RANGE, VELOCITY AND ROUND TRIP LIGHT TIME AS OF THIS REPORT

	Voyager 1	Voyager 2
Distance from the Sun (Km)	16,812,000,000	13,646,000,000
Distance from the Sun (Mi)	10,446,000,000	8,479,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Km)	16,894,000,000	13,767,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Mi)	10,498,000,000	8,555,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Km)	21,707,000,000	20,695,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Mi)	13,488,000,000	12,859,000,000
Velocity Relative to Sun (Km/sec)	17.074	15.492
Velocity Relative to Sun (Mi/hr)	38,192	34,653
Velocity Relative to Earth (Km/sec)	25.810	32.822
Velocity Relative to Earth (Mi/hr)	57,734	73,419
Round Trip Light Time (hh:mm:ss)	31:17:30	25:30:38

Voyager Mission Operations Status Report # 2010-01-29, Week Ending January 29, 2010

Command Transmission & Verification Operations

There were no command operations in support of Voyager 1 during the period.

Voyager 2 command operations consisted of the uplink of seven bracketed Command Loss Timer Resets sent on five-minute centers using 0.5 Hz steps on 01/27 [DOY 027/2007z]. The spacecraft received four of the seven commands sent.

Sequence Generation Operations

Continue sequence development of CCSL B147.

Data Return Operations

Voyager 1 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 74.4 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 1 of which 19.9 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made during the period.

There was one significant outage of 1.2 hours on 01/26 [DOY 026] due to an antenna problem with DSS-25 in the DSS25/24 array. [DR G109988].

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. One frame of GS-4 data was recorded this week. A second frame of GS-4 data was recorded on January 23. The EDR backlog is 9 day.

Voyager 2 Data Processing and Operations:

There were 68.8 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 2 of which 39.4 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made or significant outages during the period.

Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. The EDR backlog is 8 days.

Flight System Performance

Voyager 1 performance was nominal during this report period. Activity included turning on gyros AB on 1/29 (DOY 029).

Voyager 2 performance was nominal during this report period.

PROPELLANT/POWER CONSUMABLES STATUS AS OF THIS REPORT

Spacecraft	Consumption One Week (Gm)	Propellant Remaining (Kg)	Output (Watts)	Margin (Watts)
1	5.59	26.35	274.9	13
2	4.83	27.99	276.2	35

RANGE, VELOCITY AND ROUND TRIP LIGHT TIME AS OF THIS REPORT

	Voyager 1	Voyager 2
Distance from the Sun (Km)	16,822,000,000	13,655,000,000
Distance from the Sun (Mi)	10,453,000,000	8,485,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Km)	16,893,000,000	13,772,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Mi)	10,487,000,000	8,558,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Km)	21,722,000,000	20,715,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Mi)	13,498,000,000	12,872,000,000
Velocity Relative to Sun (Km/sec)	17.073	15.491
Velocity Relative to Sun (Mi/hr)	38,191	34,652
Velocity Relative to Earth (Km/sec)	24.295	31.616
Velocity Relative to Earth (Mi/hr)	54,347	70,722
Round Trip Light Time (hh:mm:ss)	31:17:20	25:31:08