NASA to Revive Cassini Spacecraft at Saturn

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NASA ispreparing to revive the dormant Cassini spacecraft in orbit aroundSaturn,which ceased science operations three weeks ago due to a computerglitch.

Cassinimission controllers plan to reawaken the Saturn probe tomorrow (Nov.24). Thespacecraft has been operating in a protectivestandby mode ? called "safe mode" ? sinceNov. 2 because of anill-timed flip of a data bit in Cassini's command and data systemcomputer.

"Thebit flip happened in exactly the wrong location ?  almostanyplace else wouldhave merely resulted in a rejected command ? but the spacecraftrespondedexactly as programmed," Cassini program manager Bob Mitchell, of NASA'sJet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., said in an updatethismonth. "Cassini is in excellent shape, and we are looking forward tothenext seven years of this mission." [Cassini'sGreatest Hits: Photos of Saturn]

This latestcomputer hiccup marked the sixth time since Cassini's launch in 1997that thespacecraft went into safe mode. During that time, the probe beamedengineeringand spacecraft health data to its mission operations center at JPL, butcouldnot perform science observations.

The glitchforced mission planners to skip planned observations of Saturn'slargest moon Titan during a Nov. 11 flyby of thecloud-covered satellite.

"Playbackfrom the computer's memory is enabling engineers to extract sciencedatacollected before the spacecraft entered safe mode," JPL officials said.

Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
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