In message d, Aidan
Karley writes
In article , Rskt wrote:
I also wonder if the probe around
Saturn ever turned back to take a picture of earth.

I don't recall hearing of any such, and considering that the
camera are all
oriented in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the radio
antennae, I would
doubt it was done - to point a camera at the Earth, the spacecraft
would have to
be turned so that the antennae did not point towards Earth. Which would
break the
radio connection. There are sub-systems for keeping the spacecraft's
orientation
without direct control from the Earth, and for regaining orientation if some
unexpected event disturbed orientation. But the risk of triggering a
malfunction
by trying to point the spacecraft off it's intended line probably wouldn't be
worth the result.
During the Earth fly-by (18th Aug 1999) ...
Nine of Cassini's 12 science instruments were turned on to make observations
of the Earth/Moon system. Scientific and engineering data from the Earth
flyby will be transmitted by Cassini to receiving stations of NASA's Deep
Space Network over coming days.

(From http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pres...90817-pr-a.cfm , the
NASA press release.)
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pres...01230-sn-a.cfm has
information
about the data acquired during the Jupiter fly-by.

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/view.php?id=77 has information from the
imaging team
about photography of the Moon during the Earth fly-by.

According to http://pages.preferred.com/~tedstryk/mooncass.html the
reason Cassini didn't take many images during its fly-by was budget
constraints!
If true, that's absurd - you've already spent over a billion dollars;
doesn't it make sense to spend some money to get some positive PR and
more calibration images? I wonder if it had something to do with not
reminding the kooks and protesters that a nuclear-powered spacecraft was
approaching Earth.
--
What have they got to hide? Release the ESA Beagle 2 report.
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