[meteorite-list] Cassini Gets Close-Up Views of Saturn's Moon Iapetus

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=release=2007-099a

Cassini Gets Close-Up Views of Saturn's Moon Iapetus
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 11, 2007

Cassini completed its closest flyby of the odd moon Iapetus on Sept. 10,
2007. The spacecraft flew about 1,640 kilometers (1,000 miles) from
Iapetus' surface and is returning amazing views of the bizarre moon.

All the data were successfully recorded on the spacecraft. Twenty-one
minutes into the first post-flyby data downlink, the spacecraft went
into a precautionary condition called "safe mode. The cause has been
determined to be a solid state power switch that was tripped due to a
galactic cosmic ray hit.

While in safe mode, the spacecraft turns off all unnecessary activities
and transmits only essential engineering telemetry at a low data rate,
while it awaits commands from Earth.

Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, commands were sent to the spacecraft to
resume high rate science and engineering data playback. The project
expects all data on the spacecraft will be returned to Earth during
downlinks on Tuesday and Wednesday, with no impact on the Iapetus
science data return beyond a brief delay.

Due to the safing event, the sequence executing on the spacecraft was
halted, and Cassini's instruments will not be turned back on for three
or four days. The last time Cassini was in safe mode was over four years
ago.

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Media contact: Carolina Martinez/JPL
818-354-9382