The most recent spacecraft telemetry data was acquired from the Canberra tracking
station on Tuesday, 11/16. 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 (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/today/)
On November 13th, CDA (Cosmic Dust Analyzer) data was downlinked from the
spacecraft. This is the first opportunity for data collection since the successful
execution of a spacecraft roll that placed that instrument’s aperture into the ecliptic
plane. The data will be examined for an increased number of hits due to the new
spacecraft orientation.
Outreach activities include presentations of a Cassini Mission Overview to the American
Nuclear Society and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.
Mission Planning has received all science and spacecraft requests for activities to
execute during Instrument Checkout #2. This activity occurs during May through
November of 2000.
The Spacecraft Office delivered the Inertial Vector Propagator and Kinematic Predictor
(IVP/KPT) tools to the Operations Net. The major new capability in these tools is the
ability to orient the spacecraft to point to an arbitrary body. This will enable the
targeting of the asteroid Masursky in January as part of the C18 sequence.
The Instrument Operations Team hosted a training workshop for the SPICE and NAIF Tool
Kit (Spacecraft, Planet, Instruments, C-matrix and events kernals, and Navigation
Ancillary Information Facility) for Facility Instrument and Remote Site personnel.
This tool kit will be used for Tour development over the coming months.
Cassini Outreach
Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
