Titan is getting closer

Well, I mean Cassini is getting closer to Titan.

"The Cassini spacecraft successfully completed a 51-minute engine burn that
will raise its next closest approach distance to Saturn by nearly 300,000
kilometers (186,000 miles). The maneuver was necessary to keep the
spacecraft from passing through the rings and to put it on target for its
first close encounter with Saturn's moon Titan on Oct. 26. "

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pres...40823-pr-a.cfm

while you are there, check out the "wavy clouds" at Saturn's south pole. As
it says, the stratosphere at this latitude is almost pure hydrogen and
helium.

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 08:35:58 GMT, Wally Anglesea wrote:

Well, I mean Cassini is getting closer to Titan.

"The Cassini spacecraft successfully completed a 51-minute engine burn that
will raise its next closest approach distance to Saturn by nearly 300,000
kilometers (186,000 miles). The maneuver was necessary to keep the
spacecraft from passing through the rings and to put it on target for its
first close encounter with Saturn's moon Titan on Oct. 26. "

It's a pity so much fuel had to be spent just to get the s/c in the tour
orbit. That fuel would otherwise enable a much longer orbital tour than the
planned 10 year maximum...

Am I correct in assuming we'll get better images of the inner moons this
time? Or will they spend all the onboard memory storage during the Titan
encounter? I figure there's about a day and a half between Titan and Saturn
closest approach, that would give enough time for 2 Earth downlink sessions
and then enough time for the closest approach.
I don't suppose there's a timetable of planned sequence of observations
somewhere on the net?

--
The butler did it.

"Ugo" wrote in message news
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 08:35:58 GMT, Wally Anglesea wrote:

Well, I mean Cassini is getting closer to Titan.

"The Cassini spacecraft successfully completed a 51-minute engine burn that
will raise its next closest approach distance to Saturn by nearly 300,000
kilometers (186,000 miles). The maneuver was necessary to keep the
spacecraft from passing through the rings and to put it on target for its
first close encounter with Saturn's moon Titan on Oct. 26. "

It's a pity so much fuel had to be spent just to get the s/c in the tour
orbit. That fuel would otherwise enable a much longer orbital tour than the
planned 10 year maximum...

Am I correct in assuming we'll get better images of the inner moons this
time? Or will they spend all the onboard memory storage during the Titan
encounter? I figure there's about a day and a half between Titan and Saturn
closest approach, that would give enough time for 2 Earth downlink sessions
and then enough time for the closest approach.
I don't suppose there's a timetable of planned sequence of observations
somewhere on the net?

While I haven't found an exact timetable, you can see
a petal plot and target summary he
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/saturn-tour.cfm

It includes:

74 Orbits of Saturn
45 Close flybys of Titan
8 close "targeted" flybys of other satellites:
3 close flybys of Enceladus
Phoebe
Hyperion
Dione
Rhea
Iapetus
30 additional satellite flybys at distances less than 100,000
kilometers (about 62,100 miles)

Rick

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 13:29:34 -0700, Rick wrote:
While I haven't found an exact timetable, you can see
a petal plot and target summary he
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/saturn-tour.cfm

It includes:

74 Orbits of Saturn
45 Close flybys of Titan
8 close "targeted" flybys of other satellites:
3 close flybys of Enceladus
Phoebe
Hyperion
Dione
Rhea
Iapetus
30 additional satellite flybys at distances less than 100,000
kilometers (about 62,100 miles)

Thanks, but I've already seen that. I don't think any of the approach
distances during this periapsis fall into the "nontargeted flyby" category
as they're farther than 100,000 km. Nevertheless, it still is possible to
get very good images (color would be nice, too . Something on the line of
that best Rhea image taken on July 2nd, or better...
Most of the moon stuff I've seen so far is black & white, usually magnified
2x or 4x. A spacecraft as capable as Cassini must be able to do better than
that!

--
The butler did it.