[X] My Assistant

[Rob Pinnegar]

According to the schedule on the main website, Cassini is gearing up for the "petal rotation" part of its tour. Consequently, it will be crossing the orbit of Iapetus several times between now and next spring.

Sadly, there are no close fly-bys (or should that be flys-by?) of Iapetus during this period, or in the subsequent parts of the tour between now and the close flyby scheduled for September 2007. However, just looking at some animations of the Cassini tour, it looks as if Cassini might get within a million kilometres of Iapetus once or twice during that period. Of course, Iapetus' orbital inclination to Saturn's equator complicates this, so it's hard to tell.

For those of you who have the software to do the calculations: What are the closest distant flybys of Iapetus between now and September 2007? Will any parts of Iapetus be seen at higher resolution than previously?

Also, what are the odds of a second Iapetus close flyby during the extended mission? I guess it's a bit problematical due to orbital-mechanical considerations and the fact that it would take up a lot of Cassini's time. However, I vaguely remember someone saying, a couple of months back, that it was under consideration.

[Ian R]

Brilliant work Ted! Surely this has to be the definitive presentation of the best Iapetus images taken by Voyager.

Thanks also to Rob and Deception for solving the Mystery of the Missing Impact Basin. Perhaps we could ask Emily or Jason if they could find out where the 850km basin is supposed to be located on the moon?