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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Titan _ T34 (July 19, 2007)

Posted by: remcook Jul 13 2007, 11:05 AM

Mission description online: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/products/pdfs/20070719_titan_mission_description.pdf

..and the return of the playback list

Posted by: ugordan Jul 13 2007, 02:08 PM

Now THAT is an equatorial flyby!

Posted by: elakdawalla Jul 13 2007, 04:44 PM

Woo hoo! Delighted to see those playback timelines return. They really help deliver blow-by-blow detail on the timing of observations.

--Emily

Posted by: Littlebit Jul 13 2007, 05:11 PM

QUOTE (T34 Description)

During that period, the Cassini HGA boresight is continuously maneuvered to point to the region on Titan's surface where mirror-like (specular) reflection, if detectable, can be observed at the NASA DSN ground receiving stations at Goldstone and Canberra...
...Potential detectability of a weak echo strongly depends on potential presence of relatively flat (liquid or solid) Titan terrain within the HGA footprint over the surface region probed (the ground track). The T34 observation geometry also enjoys the advantage of extending in time till near C/A where a smaller distance to the surface enhances the measurement signal-to-noise ratio, hence enhances potential detectability of any weak surface echo.

Posted by: Stu Jul 13 2007, 07:26 PM

Looking forward to that.

Apologies if I've missed some update somewhere, but are we still a bit behind with the release of radar images? Seems like yonks since we saw any more data on lakes/seas etc.

Posted by: alan Jul 14 2007, 05:13 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jul 13 2007, 11:44 AM)

Woo hoo! Delighted to see those playback timelines return. They really help deliver blow-by-blow detail on the timing of observations.

--Emily

Images playback on Thursday. Shouldn't be any problem getting them onto the raw image pages then.

The delays that I've seen have occurred when images arrived on the weekend, like the images from T33 which still are not up

Posted by: alan Jul 20 2007, 07:21 PM

New Titan image are up.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-list.cfm?browseLatest=0&cacheQ=0&storedQ=0

Another crater?

Original image
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS32/N00086533.jpg

Posted by: Juramike Jul 20 2007, 07:48 PM

Cool-o!

Here is a context image: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS32/W00030649.jpg

And craterform indicated in this image below:

(It looks similar in size to the sliced carrot feature in Shangri-La, but without the slices?)

-Mike

[EDIT: Alan had already indicated the crater nicely in his post.]

Posted by: Juramike Jul 20 2007, 08:38 PM

Context image coupled with Fensal-Aztlan mosaic showing S Senkyo basin. Putative tectonic lines in Quivra and Aztlan line up with the sets of lines seen in the southern part of the new image in S Senkyo. (Also lines up with putative grabens in N Tseghi and NE Tseghi.)

Generation III squish vector corresponding tectonic ridges - yellow
Generation II squish vector corresponding tectonic ridges - purple

Note possible breach in circular feature wall indicated by orange arrow.

Man, I hope we got higher res images of this! And VIMS would be awesome also!
I'll bet that blob to the SW of the new crater is going have similar properties as Adiri.
(Can we go back and get a RADAR swath?

)

Whoo-hoo!

-Mike

Posted by: volcanopele Jul 20 2007, 08:38 PM

QUOTE (alan @ Jul 20 2007, 12:21 PM)

New Titan image are up.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-list.cfm?browseLatest=0&cacheQ=0&storedQ=0

Another crater?

Could be. My thinking though is probably not.

Wrong part of Titan, Mike.

Posted by: Juramike Jul 20 2007, 08:42 PM

No way! (meant in a non-combatitive "OMG, I sure hope I didn't screw this up" manner)

(What is the lat/lon of Alan's image?)

-Mike

Posted by: alan Jul 20 2007, 09:17 PM

Juramike, your context image was taken before closest approach. I believe you have it upside down.

Edit, scratch that, I checked the CICLOPS page, it looks OK .

Posted by: Juramike Jul 22 2007, 02:43 PM

Hmmm....Well, it looks like this particular area in S Senkyo might have been examined and described before:

See: Perry, J. et al LPS XXXVIII (2007) p. 2219. “Cassini ISS observations of Titan: The Titan-20 flyby.” Abstract freely available http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2007/pdf/2219.pdf.

If the dark circle is indeed an impact feature, then it appears to be a heavily eroded, ragged, breached, and dune-sand filled Generation I feature (relatively young – no squish). Probably the only way to confirm it is similar to other circular features would be SAR RADAR imaging of the putative walls and the center.

(From the imaging so far, it still could be a crater, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.)

The “tectonic” ridges and lines inferred in the post above mesh nicely with the processed images in the abstract.

-Mike

Posted by: Littlebit Aug 8 2007, 02:02 PM

QUOTE (T34 Mission Description)

During that period, the Cassini HGA boresight is continuously maneuvered to point to the region on Titan's surface where mirror-like (specular) reflection, if detectable, can be observed at the NASA DSN ground receiving stations at Goldstone and Canberra. The T34 experiment enjoys the unique advantage of an observation geometry near the Brewster angle of likely surface compositions throughout the 65 minutes observation period. This special geometry allows unambiguous determination of the surface dielectric constant, and hence its physical state and properties, from simultaneous measurement of the RCP and LCP (right and left circularly polarized, respectively) echo components, if detectable.

The Cassini Events log said that these observations were very successful. I'm not holding my breath waiting for analysis - well I guess I am - but I suspect the team will mull over these data for some time before publishing. Titan hasn't failed to surprise us yet.