Rev 199: Nov. 7- Dec. 17 '13, Titan's T96 flyby Options

[NickF]

The Acta Astronautica paper linked by Steve Silva makes fascinating reading.

The optimal cruise time for a Saturn-Uranus transfer seems to be 26 years, with a Saturn departure date of Feb 8, 2020. 42 years to Neptune, departing Mar 21, 2017. (Worth noting that these are flyby- or impact missions). All unlikely to happen, of course, but fun to think about.

[djellison]

Not unlikley to happen. IMPOSSIBLE. There is no where near enough fuel onboard to even entertain the idea.

[0101Morpheus]

Can we settle for a flyby of Iapetus then?

[Explorer1]

No; March 2015 is the last distant encounter, at almost a million kilometers!
The mission planners have settled on a plan for the next few years and they're not going to change it without good reason.

[stevesliva]

The mission planners have settled on a plan for the next few years and they're not going to change it without good reason.

That's what I was trying to get at... the propellant necessary would mean sacrificing an incredible final tour and the proximal orbits--let's not forget that this will be unique for Cassini-- in favor of getting whatever instruments still work to another planet in several decades. For only a fly-by. All that said, neat stuff.

[Explorer1]

Back on the topic of radar coverage, here's a new radar map of the north polar seas:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17655

A few big blank spaces left at around 65 N, 55 W and the pole itself, but if the infrared already shows nothing there, not much point filling them in, is there?

[elakdawalla]

Can we settle for a flyby of Iapetus then?

You have no idea how hard they tried to fit another Iapetus flyby into the XXM tour. They wanted it badly, but while they could do lots of amazing things with very limited fuel, another Iapetus flyby would come at too high cost of other great science, so they had to give up the idea.