Dedicated Ring Missions, proposals and discussions Options

[Explorer1]

So much to unpack in that image. Bizarre shape (are those ridges?) and those 'streamers'? And what is that shadow on the sunlit side? Surely not something popping up from the surface, right? Or is it even a shadow, or some sort of dark material on the surface?

Such a 'grainy' texture to the rings as well, are we on the verge of resolving the largest of the individual particles (maybe those specks on the edges of the gap?). What sort of resolution is it?

I know we won't get views like this for a long time after September, but I can't even fathom where one would get started on designing a dedicated ring mission...

[jasedm]

a dedicated ring mission...

I would personally love to see this.

Would it be possible to insert a probe into an orbit that is very slightly (a couple of degrees or so) above the ring-plane, and start out after insertion burn around Enceladus' orbit. The probe could conduct a set of detailed studies there before with repeated burns, spiralling slowly inwards, thereby intersecting the orbits of Mimas, Janus/Epimetheus, and so on, before skimming a few kilometres above the rings all the way in.
At ~5km or so above the ring plane with a very decent camera might it be possible to resolve individual ring particles in the order of a few tens of metres?

[fredk]

Would it be possible to insert a probe into an orbit that is very slightly (a couple of degrees or so) above the ring-plane

Do you mean can a probe orbit parallel to, but outside of, the rings? If that's what you mean, the answer is no. Anything orbiting Saturn must be coplanar with Saturn's centre of mass, according to Newton. So you'd have to intersect the ring plane somewhere. I think the best you could do would be to cross the ring plane just outside the rings or in a ring gap.

Staying parallel to but outside the ring plane is possible if you apply thrust to keep you there, but I don't think you could do that for long with reasonable amounts of fuel. But that's not entirely clear to me, since the fuel required would drop the closer to the rings you got. So a path just 100 metres, say, above the ring plane may not require much thrust. That's a calculation someone could probably do...

[jasedm]

Do you mean can a probe orbit parallel to, but outside of, the rings?

Yes - excuse my ignorance I imagined a fairly decent bi-propellant engine for orbit insertion and major orbit-tweaking burns, and an ion engine to gently nudge and shape the orbit, achieving a continuous inward spiral.

[toddbronco2]

Yes - excuse my ignorance I imagined a fairly decent bi-propellant engine for orbit insertion and major orbit-tweaking burns, and an ion engine to gently nudge and shape the orbit, achieving a continuous inward spiral.

There actually was a very interesting proposal called the Saturn Ring Observer that was planned to do exactly what you just suggested; Using low-thrust electric propulsion to maintain a perpetual small offset above the rings as it slowly spiraled in toward Saturn.

http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/grou.../ssb_059328.pdf

[HSchirmer]

There actually was a very interesting proposal called the Saturn Ring Observer that was planned to do exactly what you just suggested; Using low-thrust electric propulsion to maintain a perpetual small offset above the rings as it slowly spiraled in toward Saturn.

http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/grou.../ssb_059328.pdf

Hmm, what about a orbit around the L1 point of Mimas?

Then keep skipping into the rings along the L1 points of smaller and smaller satellites,
Mimas, Epimethius, Prometheus, Pan?