Cassini Enceladus orbit 3 imaging

The highest resolution Enceladus images from the orbit 3 flyby was
60m/pixel from a distance of ~10,000 km. The closest distance to
Enceladus on the flyby was ~1200 km. What was the reason for no images
from closer than ~10,000 km. Night side flyby?

If so, was this required to set up for the following 500 km flyby on
orbit 4?

Will the orbit 4 flyby allow imaging at closest approach, or would the
relative flyby speed be greater than Cassini tracking capability for
smear reduction?

The Titan-3 Flyby Mission Description on the Cassini website was sadly
lacking in any description of the Enceladus flyby geometry, coverage,
etc. The JPL PIO should consider putting this info on the web for the
orbit 4 flyby.

On 2005-02-21, wrote:
The highest resolution Enceladus images from the orbit 3 flyby was
60m/pixel from a distance of ~10,000 km. The closest distance to
Enceladus on the flyby was ~1200 km. What was the reason for no images
from closer than ~10,000 km. Night side flyby?

If so, was this required to set up for the following 500 km flyby on
orbit 4?

Bad geometry? They were still coming out of the Titan flyby, and may
have been too involved with transmitting data from that to be in a good
position for imagery?

--
-Andrew Gray

Andrew Gray wrote:
On 2005-02-21, wrote:
The highest resolution Enceladus images from the orbit 3 flyby was
60m/pixel from a distance of ~10,000 km. The closest distance to
Enceladus on the flyby was ~1200 km. What was the reason for no
images
from closer than ~10,000 km. Night side flyby?

If so, was this required to set up for the following 500 km flyby
on
orbit 4?

Bad geometry? They were still coming out of the Titan flyby, and may
have been too involved with transmitting data from that to be in a
good
position for imagery?

--
-Andrew Gray


Another possibility I neglected to note was for coverage, i.e., the EO3
flyby was on the outside of Enceladus (relative to Saturn), and the EO4
flyby will be on the inside.