Saturn's bared mini-moons Options

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

There is a new Cassini-related paper by Tiscareno et al. (and accompanying News and Views piece by Spahn and Schmidt) in the March 30, 2006, issue of Nature. See also the Editor's Summary: Propelled into the limelight.

[ElkGroveDan]

This kind of discovery is one of the reasons why I'm in favor of closer and closer ring dives as Cassini nears the end of it's mission, sort of the way they got bolder and bolder with Galileo near Io as its days were numbered.

(...assuming of course the orbital mechanics would allow it. I put away my slide rule long ago, so I'll leave it up to you guys who crunch numbers for a living.)

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

This kind of discovery is one of the reasons why I'm in favor of closer and closer ring dives as Cassini nears the end of it's mission, sort of the way they got bolder and bolder with Galileo near Io as its days were numbered.

(...assuming of course the orbital mechanics would allow it. I put away my slide rule long ago, so I'll leave it up to you guys who crunch numbers for a living.)

With my opinion, the best "last" orbit for Cassini would be
-periastron just grazing Saturn atmosphere
-apoastron lower than Enceladus (to avoid biological contamination)
-crossing the ring plane at periastron, just above saturn atmosphere, the place where there are the less particules (not stable in this place).
-with a very lonw inclination, so that it will graze the rings throughout their width.

Pros:
-lower radioactivity
-close view to the rings, perhaps possibility to separate larger particules
-possibility to radar probe the rings and even Saturn itself
-safe end of Cassini when out of fuel (such an orbit will soon lead to a crash on Saturn or into the rings, but avoids Enceladus).

Cons:
-Would need lot of fuel or moon assistance. Don't know if it is possible
-if it is possible, the fuel consumed would be at the cost of an extended mission.

[JRehling]

With my opinion, the best "last" orbit for Cassini would be
-periastron just grazing Saturn atmosphere
-apoastron lower than Enceladus (to avoid biological contamination)
[...]
Cons:
-Would need lot of fuel or moon assistance. Don't know if it is possible
-if it is possible, the fuel consumed would be at the cost of an extended mission.

It's totally impossible. Once you get apoapsis inside Titan's orbit, there are no more gravity assists to be had. And circularizing the orbit that deep in the gravity well would require a LOT of delta-v. Unless aerobraking at Saturn were possible, this cannot be done, and aerobraking at Saturn is a much more difficult than at Mars.