Rosetta flyby of Asteroid Steins, 5th September 2008 Options

[peter59]

Only 78 days to Stein encounter ! I can't believe I forgot about this event.

[tasp]

I recall Carl Sagan finding difficulty in scheduling observing time from Mariner 9 (IIRC) of Phobos and Deimos since they were not mentioned in the 'official' mission plans.

He advanced the idea that studying Phobos and Deimos at Mars was the equivalent of a free mission to the asteroid belt, and this point seemed to do the trick.

Happily, all these years later, can we really categorize all these wee rocky beasties accurately ??

So many weird and wonderful objects to study, and they all are unique in their own ways.

[tallbear]

I recall Carl Sagan finding difficulty in scheduling observing time from Mariner 9 (IIRC) of Phobos and Deimos since they were not mentioned in the 'official' mission plans.

He advanced the idea that studying Phobos and Deimos at Mars was the equivalent of a free mission to the asteroid belt, and this point seemed to do the trick.

Happily, all these years later, can we really categorize all these wee rocky beasties accurately ??

So many weird and wonderful objects to study, and they all are unique in their own ways.

and Cassini is doing plenty of asteroid flybys as it gets closer looks at Saturn's fine collection of asteroids
.... T

[ugordan]

Well, "closer looks" is a bit misleading, don't you think? I'd declare something a flyby if the s/c actually resolved the object. Photometry and light curves are stretching it a bit, IMHO.