Cassini's Extended-Extended Mission, July 2010-June 2017 |
Cassini's Extended-Extended Mission, July 2010-June 2017 |
Feb 4 2010, 02:25 PM
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#91
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
A generous lifespan - an immortal legacy - what more could anybody wish for?
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Feb 4 2010, 02:49 PM
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#92
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1417 Joined: 26-July 08 Member No.: 4270 |
Definitely! I'm excited about the news!
Another thing to keep in mind, MahFL, is contamination. Enceladus became a very attractive target for astrobiology since the arrival of Cassini. It would be a shame of biological contaminants were to be accidentally introduced onto Enceladus from Cassini though an impact in the distant future. Depositing the spacecraft into Saturn is like throwing away a used band-aid. Nothing you can do with it anymore, and you don't want to risk bio-contamination. This helped motivate the Galileo plunge into Jupiter, avoid contamination of Europa. Can we expect any science from Cassini during the Saturn plunge? -------------------- -- Hungry4info (Sirius_Alpha)
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Feb 4 2010, 03:08 PM
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#93
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Can we expect any science from Cassini during the Saturn plunge? Absolutely!! Cassini might get to actually taste Saturn's atmosphere on it's way in. Check out this repost here. -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Feb 4 2010, 09:26 PM
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#94
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
Are there any close or non targeted flybys of Hyperion in the XXM?
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Feb 4 2010, 10:58 PM
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#95
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IMG to PNG GOD Group: Moderator Posts: 2250 Joined: 19-February 04 From: Near fire and ice Member No.: 38 |
Are there any close or non targeted flybys of Hyperion in the XXM? RTFM ;-) This link was posted in this thread earlier today: http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/cassini/xxm/SM-7/SM-7_all.txt |
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Feb 4 2010, 11:51 PM
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#96
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Member Group: Members Posts: 443 Joined: 1-July 05 From: New York City Member No.: 424 |
Some questions about Cassini's final maneuvers.
John Spenser's description on Emily's blog states that a final Titan fly-by will perturb Cassini's orbit into a narrow cloud-scraping orbit inside the ring system. After 23 orbits, "a final distant nudge from Titan on September 11, 2017 delivers the death blow, altering the orbit just enough to drop Cassini into Saturn on September 15." Is that final nudge a pure gravitational perturbation, or is it assisted by Cassini's propulsion system? How far away will Titan be when it delivers the fatal nudge? TTT |
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Feb 5 2010, 12:14 AM
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#97
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Member Group: Members Posts: 697 Joined: 3-December 04 From: Boulder, Colorado, USA Member No.: 117 |
That's a purely gravitational nudge from Titan- no propellant required. That final "close" approach to Titan will be at a range of 86,000 km.
John |
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Feb 5 2010, 12:16 AM
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#98
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Member Group: Members Posts: 340 Joined: 11-April 08 From: Sydney, Australia Member No.: 4093 |
This link was posted in this thread earlier today: http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/cassini/xxm/SM-7/SM-7_all.txt I have used that file in my timeline, hence you can also search my website by target: http://www.dmuller.net/spaceflight/target....target=hyperion -------------------- |
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Feb 5 2010, 05:44 AM
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#99
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Member Group: Members Posts: 443 Joined: 1-July 05 From: New York City Member No.: 424 |
Some more questions about Cassini's final plunge.
Is it expected that the vessel will be completely vaporized as it flames through the upper atmosphere, or are some pieces likely to survive to continue their descent at a stately terminal velocity? If the latter, will the remnants continue to sink until they are vaporized in Saturn's hot core, or will they survive, highly compressed but still distinct objects, bobbing away in some cooler region of the atmosphere? |
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Feb 5 2010, 10:02 AM
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#100
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Member Group: Members Posts: 107 Joined: 29-January 09 Member No.: 4589 |
I've also wondered about the question Tom raises.
Fascinating to think that the Pu in Cassini's RTGs will be the heaviest constituent atoms of Saturn for the for the foreseeable future -------------------- Protein structures and Mars fun - http://www.flickr.com/photos/nick960/
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Feb 5 2010, 11:15 AM
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#101
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
I know it makes scense to plunge into Saturn, my original comments were more a knee jerk reaction on hearing they were going for the plunge.
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Feb 5 2010, 07:01 PM
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#102
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Member Group: Members Posts: 146 Joined: 23-August 06 From: Vriezenveen, Netherlands Member No.: 1067 |
I think it's a sad thing to crash a spacecraft like Cassini into Saturn.
I remember that when Cassini was developed many options were mentioned, like orbiting Titan or swing te spacecraft out of the Saturn system in an orbit around the sun. |
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Feb 5 2010, 07:07 PM
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#103
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14431 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
By making the most of what Cassini was designed to do ( orbit Saturn and observe it's system ) I assume they've traded any possible outside-of-the-box fates for Cassini for just more Saturn observations, assuming the XXM will use up the vast majority of remaining fuel.
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Feb 5 2010, 07:08 PM
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#104
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10145 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
Yes, sure, CAP-Team, but the science is inferior. Here we will get the mass of the rings, chemistry of the upper atmosphere of Saturn, the manetic field at very low altitudes, plus great ring/inner moon imaging opportunities. Escaping Saturn gives us nothing, and I think it was already found to be too difficult to get into Titan orbit, plus inferior science (a bit on Titan but nothing on the rest of the system.
Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Feb 5 2010, 07:13 PM
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#105
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Member Group: Members Posts: 609 Joined: 23-February 07 From: Occasionally in Columbia, MD Member No.: 1764 |
I think it's a sad thing to crash a spacecraft like Cassini into Saturn. I remember that when Cassini was developed many options were mentioned, like orbiting Titan or swing te spacecraft out of the Saturn system in an orbit around the sun. Well, a lot has happened since Cassini was developed.... in fact, one of the driving considerations behind the end-of-mission scenarios is to avoid even the small probability of hitting Europa (qv Galileo). Dumping your RTG-powered spacecraft in a giant planet avoids lawsuits, terrorist threats, and planetary protection issues. |
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