Ensuring Cassini´s end-of-mission propellant margins

The Cassini spacecraft is in its final years. On September 15, 2017, Cassini will plunge deep into Saturn´s atmosphere never to reemerge; thus concluding its second extended mission and 13 years in orbit around the ringed planet. As of October 2014, the spacecraft is four years in to its seven-year, second extended mission, the Cassini Solstice Mission (CSM). With three years left and only 2.5% of its loaded bipropellant and 37% of its loaded monopropellant remaining, the Cassini project actively manages the predicted end-of-mission propellant margins to maintain a high confidence in the spacecraft´s ability to complete the CSM as designed. Accurate spacecraft navigation, rigorous remaining-propellant estimation, and frequent future propellant consumption prediction have resulted in efficient propellant use and a probability of sufficient propellant margin greater than 99%.